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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 




GUAXT IX NOVEMBER, 1S79. 
tl'hoto by Brand of Chicago.] 



Grant, the Man of 
Mystery 



BY 

COLONEL NICHOLAS SMITH 

Author of "Our Nation's Flag In History and Incitknt," "Stotits of 
Great Nallonal Songa," etc. 



MILWAUKEE 

THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN CO. 

1909 






COPYRIGHT BV 

THE YOUNG CHURCHMAN LO. 
1909 



LloHARY i.t C.^OTf-: 
Two Cnui^; ■•■ - 

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DEX)ICATED TO THE MEMORY OF 
ULYSSES S. GRANT, AND TO THE 
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF THE 
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Genekal Gra.nt in NovEMnER, 1879 Frontispiece ' 

Grant as Bbioadier General - - - Between Pages 82-83 
Showing Course the Vessels Took in 

TaiNNiNG Blockade at Vicksburg - " " 140-141 

General Grant when he Received his 

Commission as Lieut.-General - - " " 192-193 

" " IQ'^-19'J 

Abraham Lincoln ^^^ ^ 

General Grant in the Wilderness 

Campaign ;; ^ 234-235 

The Surrender at Appomattox - - - " " 320-321 

The Birthplace and the Final Resting 

Place of General Grant - - - " " 376-377 



CONTENTS 

I. — Truth is Stranger than Fiction 



A Crisis Befalls the Land — He is Equal to the Occa- 
sion — It is of Grant — Washington, Lincoln, Grant. 

II. — Birth and Boyhood 10 

Date of General Grant's Birth — His Parents Move 
to Point Pleasant — Boyhood Spent on a Farm — 
Sixteen Years at Georgetown. 

III. — The Door to West Point is Open - - - - 15 

Appointment to West Point — No Love for Military 
Life. 

IV. — The West Point Cadet - - - 21 

Reported at West Point — Sherman was a Cadet at 
the time — Was Highly Esteemed at the Academy 
— He was Never an Enthusiast. 

V. — Anecdotes, Prophecy, AND Graduation - - - 27 

Excelled in Mathematics and Horsemanship — Leap- 
ing the Bar — General Fry's Description of Grant's 
Riding Ability — Graduated in the Summer of 
1843 — Tributes to his Ability. 

VI. — In THE Mexican War 32 

He Preferred the Cavalry — Assigned to the Fourth 
Infantry — Preferred a Professorship of Mathe- 
matics — Commissioned Second Lieutenant, Septem- 
ber, 1845 — His First Battle at Palo Alto, May 8, 
1846 — Appointed Quartermaster. 

Vll. — A Fighting Quartermaster ------ 37 



The Battle of Monterey — A Dangerous Ride — The 
Battle of Cerro Gordo — McClellan, Lee, and Beau- 
regard were in the Battle — A Howitzer Carried 
to the Bell Tower — Made First Lieutenant, for 
Bravery at Molino Del Rey. 



X GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

VIII. — Lieutenant Becomes a Benedict ----- 43 

Marriage August 22, 1848 — Assigned to Sackett'a 
Harbor — To Detroit, 1849 — Birth of Frederick 
Dent Grant, May 30, 1849 — Ordered to the Pacific- 
Coast by Way of the Isthmus of Panama. 

IX. — Coast Life — "The Parting of the Way" - - 48 

Post Quartermaster at Fort Vancouver — Promoted 
to Captain in September, 1853 — Resigned from the 
Army, April 11, 1854 — Extract from Captain Rich- 
ard Ogden's Journal — Meets Captain Buckner in 
New York — Returns to his Parents' Home in Ohio. 

X. — An Unsuccessful Farmer 55 

Grant a Private Citizen — Settles on a Farm — Builds 
a Log House — In the Autumn of 1858 Gives up 
Farming — Anecdote by General Porter — Interest- 
ing Footnote. 

XL — He Fails to Sell Eeal Estate 58 

Forms a Co-partnership In Real Estate Business — 
The World Appeared to Have Turned Against 
Him — Applies for Position as County Engineer of 
St. Louis County. 

XII. — The Captain in the Leather Trade - - - 0,') 

Becomes Clerk In a Leather Store at Galena — Be- 
ginning of the Author's Acquaintance with Grant — 
Mrs. Grant's Faith in Her Husband— Collects a 
Debt. 

XIIL — Prompt Kesponse to the Nation's Call - - 70 

The Firing of Fort Sumter — Presiding at War Meet- 
ing — Calls on Gov. Yates at Springfield — Made a 
Poor Impression on the Governor — Failure to get 
a Command — Depression of Spirits — Appointed 
Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois — The Silent, 
Mysterious Man Has Mastered Fate. 

XIV. — Marching to the Front 79 

Ordered to Take his Regiment to Quincy — Marched 
his Regiment One Hundred Miles — Grant Made 
History Rapidly — Appointed Brigadier General. 

XV. — Grant's First Battle - - 85 

General Fremont in Missouri — The Battle of Bel- 
mont — A Narrow Escape. 

XVI. — The Country is Electrified 00 

General Grant's Jurisdiction Enlarged — The Fall of 
Fo-t Henry — Moves Against Ft. Donelson— "I 
I'ropose to Move Immediately Upon Your Works" 
— The Capture of Ft. Donelson — Friendship 
Formed Between Sherman and Grant — Grant's 
Smoking Habit. 



TABLE OF COyTENTS xi 

XVII.— IIalleck Seeks Grant's Debasement - - - 102 

Meets General Buell at Nashville — Treachery of a 
Telegraph Operator — Halleck's Charge Against 
fJrant — Grant's Great Patience — Relieved of his 
Command — Unhappy Incidents — Grant Restored 
to his Command — Interesting Letter to Mrs. Grant. 

XVITI.— SiiiLoii A Victory - 110 

Gathering Forces at Pittsburgh Landing — White- 
law Reld's Testimony — General Grant Suffered 
from Bruised Ankle — The Battle of Monday — 
The Loss in Killed and Wounded. 

XIX. — After the Battle 122 

General Order Congratulating the Troops — Clamor 
for Grant's Removal — Col. McClure Appeals to 
Remove Grant — Lincoln Saved Grant — Becomes 
Heartsick Under Halleck's Persecution. 

XX. — Eesuming Command and Winning Battles - 129 

Headquarters at Memphis — IIalleck Ordered to 
Washington — Battle of luka — Battle of Corinth 
Opens. 

XXI. — Grant and the Contrabands ----- 132 

Plan for the Capture of Vlcksburg— Chaplain 
Eaton Appointed in Charge of "Contrabands." 

XXII. — The Greatest Siege in History - - - - 136 

Surrender of Holly Springs to the Confederates — 
Sherman's Attack at Chickasaw Bluffs — Lin- 
coln's Faith in Grant— Preparing to Run the 
Blockade. 

XXIII. — The Wonders of the Investment of Vicks- 
BURG 



152 



Movement on Vlcksburg — Battle of Port Gibson — 
McPherson's Victory at Raymond — McCIernand 
Relieved of Command — Grant's Astonishing 
Equlpose — Pemberton's Surrender — Lincoln's 
Letter to Grant. 

XXIV.— Chickamauga is Avenged at Chattanooga - 168 

Commissioned a Major General — Severely Injured 
in New Orleans — Lincoln's and Stanton's Con- 
fidence in Grant — Lame and Feeble, he Hastens 
to Chattanooga — The Battle of Chattanooga — 
Hooker on Lookout Mountain. 

XXV. — Public Honors Come to Grant for Battles 185 

Longstreet Driven from Tennessee — Dispatch from 
Lincoln — Goes to St. Louis. 



xii GRAyr, THE MAS OF MYSTERY 

XXVI. — Grant Commands the Armies of the Union 190 

Summary of His Victories — "U. S. Grant and Son, 
Galena, 111." — Meets Lincoln — Commissioned 
Lieutenant General, May 9th — Leaves Washing- 
ton for Nashville. 

XXVII.— Preparing to Fight Lee 200 

Letter to Sherman — Sherman's Noble Reply — 
Anecdote of Stanton and Lincoln — Makes 
Headquarters at Culpepper — Meets General 
Meade — Charming Letter from Lincoln — 
Grant's Reply. 

XXVin. — The Desperate Fight in the Wilderness - 213 

•'All Quiet Along the Potomac" now Obsolete — 
The Struggle in the Wilderness. 

XXIX. — The Race to Spottsylvania — The Battle 225 

Loss of Spottsylvania — Desperate Battle — Grant 
was an Inspiring Force to the Army of the 
Potomac — Lee Falling Back and Grant Ad- 
vancing. 

XXX. — The Deadly Assault at Cold Harbor - - 238 

Sui-prise and Disappointment — The Battle at 
Cold Harbor — Comments of the English Press. 

XXXI. — Entire Left Flank — How Petersburg 

Was Lost - - 252 

Details of the Manoeuver — Failure at Peters- 
burg — Painful Chapter in the History of the 
Civil War. 

XXXII. — In the Valley of the Shenandoah - - - 274 

The Most Fertile Region in Virginia — Sheridan 
Sent into the Valley — A Letter from Lincoln 
— Sheridan at Winchester — Sheridan Made a 
Major General In the Regular Army — General 
McPherson Killed — Sherman's March to the 
Sea. 

XXXIII. — How Grant Eeached Appomattox - - - 295 

Headquarters at City Point — Visitors at Grant's 
Headquarters — Capture of Fort Fisher — 
Grant's Appearance — Sheridan's Army Trans- 
ferred to the Army of the Potomac. 

XXXIV.— Grant and Lee Shake Hands 305 

The End of the War Near — Grant Visits Peters- 
burg—Correspondence Between Grant and 
Lee — The End Had Come. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 

XXXY.— The Last Battle— The Grand Keview - - 324 
Parolling the Army of Northern Virginia — 
Learns of Lincoln's Assassination — General 
Johnston Surrenders to Sherman — Capture of 
Jefferson Davis — Grandest Military Pageant 
Ever Witnessed on this Continent — Grand 
Review in Washington. 

XXXVI.— Grant as a Commander 332 

A Story of Peculiar Interest — Colonel Vilas' 
Tribute — Blaine's Address — Lee's Opinion of 
Grant — The Man of Mystery one of the 
Grandest Characters in all History. 

XXXVn. — A Kemarkable Home-Coming - - - - 341 

Meets General Scott at West Point — His Re- 
ception at Galena — The Most Popular Man 
in America. 

XXXVIII. — Grant and the Presidency 350 

President Johnson's Difficulties — Grant Unani- 
mously Nominated for President — Enters 
upon the Presidency — Sumner's Opposition 
— Andrew D. White's Opinion of Grant — 
Appoints General Longstreet to Office — 
Grant's Statesmanship. 

XXXIX. — The Trip Around the World - - - - 361 

His Arrival at Liverpool — Given the Freedom 
of London — Arrives at San Francisco — 
Reaches Philadelphia. 

XL. — Grant's Last and Greatest Victory - - 370 

Visits Cuba and Mexico — The Three Term 
Proposition — Makes New York City his 
Home — The Grant & Ward Failure — Begin- 
ning of his Last Illness — His Last Days— 
The Funeral. 



TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION. 




HE writer of a romance of rare genius and 
of lively imagination, seeks to create a 
character the conception of which shall be 
the most audacious known since the world 
began. Searching along byways for material out of 
which to make a hero, he finds a little man, secluded as a 
clerk in a sequestered town. He has lived out half the 
allotted years of man, has met with disappointments, 
has failed in business, is without means, has a depend- 
ent family, and the future seems without hope. 

A crisis befalls the land. Patriotism is burned into 
the soul of this shy, unambitious, unknown man. He 
offers all he has in the world — himself — to his country. 
But he is diffident, and unsoldierly in bearing, and is re- 
pelled. Others of finer speech and of more pretentious 
mein are preferred before him. But he remains true. 
Again he is rejected. Finally the door of opportunity 



2 ORANT, THE MA^ OF MYSTERY 

opens. A small command is given to him. He is equal 
to the occasion. His rank is raised, and eight months 
after, this stranger, who never loved army life and 
cared less for the study of war, has his name carried to 
the farthermost parts of the land. He wins the first 
decisive victory for the Nation and its flag. From mil- 
lions comes the cry : "Whence comes this man ?" Hardly 
liad the answer been flashed back before he commands 
the largest army in the greatest battle that had then 
been fought on the continent, and his fame becomes 
world-wide. 

Again in twelve months he startles the world by 
conceiving and executing the most remarkable siege 
known in history. His name is hailed with frenzied 
acclaim. People are thrilled by his sublime courage 
and success, and amazed at the modesty and unselfish- 
ness of the man. 

He rises to hicrher honor. In thirtv-three months 
from the day he passed out of the shop a struggling 
salesman, he is invested with more extraordinary power 
than was ever before conferred by a republic upon a 
commander of men of arms. The hour of supreme 
victory finally comes; and the quiet man, who never 
sought fame, or sway, or place, saves the Nation. 

In the contracted span of seven years, this hero, 
who never received preferment with pride, rises from 
the humblest station in life to the zenith of human fame. 
The chief magistracy of the earth's most powerful na- 
tion is thrust upon him. Earth has no more honors it 



TRUTH 18 STRANGER THAX FICTION 3 

can bestow. He conquers the heart of the world, and 
commands the respect and good will of a gallant, fallen 
foe. Peoples and governments of all republics and 
kingdoms pay him homage. 

There is a general maxim which regulates the appli- 
cation of fiction — that no fiction shall be admitted 
which seems in the nature of things to be impossible. 
If this maxim must stand, what about our novelist's 
hero — plucked by destiny from obscurity, whose leap 
to immortal fame is so sudden, whose achievements are 
so extraordinary as to have no counterpart in the life 
of man since time began ? Can it be possible, or even 
probable, that the character, portrayed in the full swing 
of the artist's fancy, is true to the realities of life ? 

Has it ever occurred to the general reader, or to the 
average student of history, that on the pages of Ameri- 
can biography, a character, a hero, is found, whose in- 
trepidity and achievements in war are so picturesque 
and dramatic, and whose rise to fame so instant and 
enduring, that fiction "can furnish no match for the 
romance of his life" ? Search where you may in fiction 
or biography belonging to any country or any age, and 
you will fail to find an equal to Ulysses S. Grant. If 
we reckon with his services on the field, the strangeness 
of his wliole career, the solidity of his faith and hope, 
and the impressivencss of his unostentatious ch-aracter, 
he is supreme among men. 

It is of Grant — not the ideal Grant, but the real 
Grant — so immeasurably great and yet so human, that 



4 CRAXT. THE ^fA\ OF MYf^TERY 

I wish to write. He certainly touched more coimiioii 
traits of human nature than any other American; and 
this suggests that to obtain an accurate measurement of 
the man we must apply the rule of contrast ; for the life 
of Grant is filled with contrasts probably more striking 
than the life of any other man in the records of human 
endeavor. 

First the student of the life of Grant discovers the 
mystery of his character. We must not expect fully to 
imderstand him. We can no more understand him than 
we can tell with certainty why a suspended piece of 
steel, touched with a magnet, turns toward the pole. 
He was a mystery to Lincoln, and to Sherman, who, of 
all the generals, knew him best, and he was "a mystery 
to himself." It has been stated that twice he distinctly 
felt within himself an intimation of what would come 
to him in the future ; once on the day of his graduation 
at West Point and again when Vicksburg fell. Some 
have set this down as an idle fancy, but whatever view 
may be taken of these incidents, it is quite evident that 
in his younger manhood, particularly when he left the 
old army under a cloud, he had visions of a clearing 
sky beyond the shadows, and darkness, and disappoint- 
ments and trials of a struggling and fruitless career. 
He seems to have been conscious of a mission. 

Possibly this may in part explain why in so many 
hazardous and stormy scenes in time of war, when the 
responsibility imposed upon him would have either 
crushed or discomfited any other commander, he was 



TRUTH W i^TKANGEU THAN FIVTIOX 5 

able to remain composed and to stand firm, contident of 
the ultimate success of his army. Therefore, the sim- 
plest wav for the mind to grasp the mystery of his per- 
sonality, if we attempt to grasp it at all, is to conclude 
that through all the years when his sword Avas drawn in 
defence of his country, he was guided, encouraged, sus- 
tained by a Higher Power — or call it by any other name 
you please — and being so upheld, he became an uncon- 
ditional victor on every field, so that no famous career 
in all history was more signally successful than his. 
There is no sentiment about this, there was none in 
Grant. Mentally, he felt very close to God from whom 
he received inspiration, but he did not expect that God 
would fight the battles for him ; he simply determined 
to fight with God and beat down the enemy. He felt in 
his soul that "the man who takes up the struggle for 
truth, who puts his hand to the sword for the right, 
finds himself holding a two-handled weapon, and if he 
grasps firmly the one hilt it is as though there was an 
omnipotent hand grasping the other." 

When Whitelaw Eeid wrote Ohio in the War, the 
field of Shiloh and other conflicts in which he had seen 
Grant being fresh in his mind, he said of the general : 

"Such a career laughs at criticism and defies depre- 
cation. Success succeeds. But when the philosophic 
historian comes to analyze the strange features of our 
great war, no anomaly will be more puzzling than 
Grant. . . . He will marvel at the amazing men- 
tal poise of the man, cast down by no disaster, elated by 



GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

iiu success. He will admire his strong, good sense, 
. . . his tremendous, unconquerable will. He will 
find him not fertile in expedients, but steadfast in exe- 
cution ; terrible in determination that was stopped by 
no question of cost; yet he will look in vain for such 
characteristics as shoiild account for his being first in 
a nation of soldiers. 

"Seeking still further for the cause of his rise, he 
will record firm friendships that were so helpful; will 
observe how willingness to fight while others were forti- 
fying, first gave him power; will allow for the un- 
exampled profusion in which soldiers and munitions 
were always furnished to his call; how he came upon 
the broader stage only when it was made easier for his 
tread by the failures of his predecessors and the pres- 
tige of his victories, and how both combined to make 
him absolute. 

". . . But after all these considerations he will 
fail to find the veritable secret of his wonderful suc- 
cess, and will at last be forced to set it down that For- 
tune — the happy explainer of mysteries inexplicable 
— did from the outset so attend him that ... he 
was mysteriously held up and borne forward, so that 
at the end he was able to rest in the highest profes- 
sional promotion, 4n peace after so many troubles, in 
honor after so much obloquy.' " 

This is the man who, by the greatness of his service, 
is necessarily the most eminent American citizen. And 
yet, many have wondered, and are still wondering, if 



TRUTH la STRANGER THAN FICTION 7 

the average American reader — old or young — fully ap- 
preciates the greatness of his character, or the ines- 
timable service he rendered his country. No man born 
during nineteen centuries of Christianity is surer of 
permanent fame than Grant ; and the more we give his 
life and personality thoughtful consideration, the more 
profound becomes the interest in his singularly strange 
career. With every advancing step of knowledge in 
relation to him, the more we are brought into the pres- 
ence of an ever-widening mystery. But while we may 
be bewildered at his astonishing success as a commander 
of men, there are certain qualities of heart and mind 
Avhich need to be emphasized as we go along, for they, 
as well as his unmatched record as a soldier, made him 
great. 

The purpose of this writing is not to attempt to open 
a rift into the clouded mystery of the man, but to lend 
a helping hand to those who desire to obtain a clearer 
conception of the real Grant than they can get from the 
larger books which are devoted chiefly to his military 
career. His masterful resources in handling large 
armies, and his indomitable will and sublime courage 
in fighting battles, excite wonder; but when we know 
him intimately it is his personality which charms. 

I do not mean to present Grant as a perfect man. 
He was human like the rest of us and had his imper- 
fections, but reading history aright we learn that he 
rose above the plane of the daily experiences of most 
great men. It was not among possibilities that the 



8 OBANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

pathway from Point Pleasant to Mt. McGregor could be 
trodden without a few false steps being made, and the 
wonder is that such a strange and eventful life could be 
lived in which there are so few acts to criticise. 

It has been said repeatedly that Grant was born 
for a great purpose. And it is quite agreeable to 
reason to assume that no man could trust as he trusted, 
and accomplish what he accomplished, without such u 
conviction. So when the stress of war was severest, 
and the outlook darkest, he w^as able to maintain an 
unquenched hope and a faith that never shrank, and 
once and for all he set his face firmly, but kindly, 
against all suggestions which did not harmonize with 
his sense of justice. As I proceed with these pages 
I wish to illustrate and illuminate wath exactness the 
qualities of this great man : his true manliness ; his 
stern justice and womanly gentleness ; his supreme self- 
possession, and simplicity and rectitude ; his single- 
heartedness; his true-hearted patriotism; his justness 
and mercifulness in peace as well as his terribleness in 
war; his absolute freedom from corrupt communica- 
tion; his greatness unmixed with personal ambition; 
his abiding faith in himself, in his tried friends, in his 
comrades in arms, in his country, and in his God. 

In brief, I desire that the reader shall become bet- 
ter acquainted with the Grant who stands out in history 
as a great, free, independent, solitary spirit; never 
weakened by praise or flattery, unchanged by the allure- 
ments of honor and power, and who had but a single 



TRUTH rfi l^TRAXOER THAN FWTIOy 9 

determination : to devote all his ability to the saving of 
the nation. 

Washington, Lincoln, Grant ! The great American 
triumvirate, the heroic central figures in the most mo- 
mentous and thrilling drama ever enacted by a freedom- 
loving people ! There is no primacy among them ; and 
the greatness of their patriotic services will be held in 
thankful remembrance as long as free government 
endures. 




II. 

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD. 

j]HE marriage of Jesse Root Grant, a young 
man of industry and sturdy qualities, to 
Hannah Simpson, a sensible and lovable 
young woman of cheerful piety, introduces 
us to one of the most dramatic periods in American 
history. The event was celebrated in 1821, at Point 
Pleasant, Ohio, some twenty-five miles east of Cincin- 
nati. It is now the same sleepy hamlet as when Hiram 
Ulysses Grant was born there in a log cabin, April 
27th, 1822. 

One year after the birth of Hiram, the family set- 
tled at Georgetown, the county seat of Brown county, 
a few miles east of Point Pleasant. Here Mr, Grant 
owned and personally operated a small tannery. Be- 
fore engaging in this business on his own account, he 
worked in a tannery and lived in the same house with 
Owen Brown, at Deerfield, Ohio. This simple fact 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD 11 

suggests tu tlic iiiiud the wonders whicli are wrought by 
the passing of time. The second child and eldest son 
of the tanner and shoemaker became known as John 
Brown of Ossawatomie, whose "Soul goes marching 
on" ; and the first-born of the tanner and farmer be- 
came known to fame as U. S. Grant. 

Hiram (that being the name by which his mother 
always called him) lived in Georgetown until his ap- 
pointment to West Point in 1839. Two winters, how- 
over, were spent at school away from home, those of 
1836-7 at Mayville, Kentucky, and 1838-9 at Kipley, 
Ohio, the latter place being ten miles from Georgetown. 

It has often been said that some of Hiram's early 
years were spent in his father's tannery, but this is 
fiction. Mr. Grant owned considerable land near the 
tannery, much of which was under cultivation, and a 
portion was timbered. Hiram detested the business of 
tanning as a trade, but was fond of farming and of all 
employment in which horses were used. When he was 
eight years old he began to haul all the wood necessary 
for the house and shops, though he could not load or 
unload the wagon. At the age of eleven he was strong 
enough to hold the plow, and from that time until 
he was seventeen he says he attended to all the work 
done with horses, ''such as breaking up the land, plow- 
ing corn and potatoes, bringing in the crops when har- 
vested, besides tending two or three horses, a cow or 
two, and sawing wood for stoves, and so on," while at- 
tending school in the winter months. 



m GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Grant makes confession in the Memoirs that he did 
not like to work, yet he did not shirk the labor assigned 
to him by his father. And here we get somewhat of an 
insight into the soul standard of the coming man. If 
work on the farm was irksome to him, he was cautious 
in not communicating the fact to his parents, because 
of a tender regard for their feelings. 

Hiram spent sixteen years in Georgetown, and while 
the Memoirs say they were "uneventful" years, they 
had much to do Avitli the making of the man. Here he 
laid a good foundation against the time to come. But 
those who knew Grant can readily understand why he 
called those years uneventful. He never wrote with a 
free hand with reference to personal matters not con- 
nected with the vast operations during the Civil War. 
That he did not wield the pen of a ready writer in mere 
personal affairs, and that there was a total absence of 
egotism and self-assertion in his character, is illus- 
trated in the fact that all he says in the Memoirs of his 
life from Point Pleasant to West Point covers less 
than eight pages. 

But the sixteen years at Georgetown were event- 
ful. Hiram's home was the making of the man. His 
father and mother taught him patriotism, which never 
died out of his heart. He early fell into the habit of 
cherishing good impulses. It must not be inferred, 
however, that he was always an ideal boy. There were 
many pitfalls into which boys were often led in such a 
village as Georgetown, and he was as human as his com- 



BIETn AND BOYHOOD 13 

panioiis ; but witli this difference — he was stronger to 
resist evil than most boys of his class. Having a steady 
temper, which came from his mother, it was difficult 
to inveigle him into a quarrel; but if forced into one, 
, it was said to his credit that he was never defeated. 

In one important particular Hiram was highly 
favored in his youth. His father was a wise man in 
many respects, though often stern and somewhat ec- 
centric. His mother was patient, sensible, and devout. 
The father's hard sense and the mother's religious in- 
stinct and loyalty to convictions were inherited by the 
son. The saying that "all good boys take after the 
mother" may have exceptions, but it was verified in 
Hiram. Napoleon says, "The future destiny of the 
child is always the work of the mother" ; and Emerson 
puts the same thought in the same sentence, "Men are 
what their mothers made them." Young Grant was 
rocked in a Methodist cradle and trained in a Method- 
ist home. His mother's love had a lasting influence 
over him. From his youth to the close of his life he 
was scrupulously free from vulgarity or profanity. He 
was deeply religious by nature, but apparently devoid 
of sentiment or emotion ; and it is a singular fact that 
he — the most religious boy in the family — was the only 
one of the six children who was not baptized in early 
life. 

The progress Hiram made in the schools at May- 
ville and Ripley did not seem to justify the outlay for 
board and tuition. He got on quite well in mathe- 



14 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

matics, and read with interest the few volumes of 
biography which were accessible in those days, but in 
other studies he did not attain to a standard of pro- 
ficiency. One of his confessions in later life was that 
the older he grew the more indolent he became — "my 
besetting sin through life." 



III. 




THE DOOR TO WEST POINT IS OPENED. 

F Mr. Grant were a stern and an eccentric 
man at times, he was a considerate father. 
He had stndied the weak and strong points 
of Hiram's character. While he did not 
presume that the boy conld ever be fitted for great 
things, he firmly believed there was more good stuff in 
him than anyone could discover by mere outward indi- 
cations. It was not revealed at the time that there were 
latent in his son the wide and varied qualities of effi- 
ciency and power derived from the personalities of 
father and mother. But Mr. Grant had confidence in 
Hiram, despite his often provoking failures and lack 
of energy and promise, and in his wisdom he carefully 
thought out a career for him in which he believed he 
would be tolerably successful. 

While Mr. Grant was fairly well-to-do for a tanner 
and farmer in those days, he was, for financial reasons, 



16 (iRAXT. THE MAX OP MY8TERY 

unable to place Hiram in any of the higher institutions 
of learning. Therefore, he had in view the Military 
Academy at West Point, where cadets were educated 
at government expense. He was something of a prophet 
in this matter, as he had stronger hope of his son's ulti- 
mate success than Hiram himself, or any of his George- 
town neighbors. 

When Hiram was spending his Christmas vacation 
at home in the winter of 1839 (he was then attending 
school at Ripley), one morning, his father said to him : 

"Ulysses, I believe you Avill receive the appoint- 
ment." 

"What appointment ?" asked Ulysses. 

"To West Point ; I have applied for it." 

"But I won't go," responded Ulysses. 

The Memoirs say : "Father said he thought I would, 
and I thought so too, if he did. I really had no objec- 
tion to going to West Point, except that I had a very 
exalted idea of the requirements necessary to get 
through. I did not believe I possessed them, and I could 
not bear the idea of failing." 

The father's commands, firmly, but kindly enforced, 
governed the Grant home, and therefore the General 
was impelled to employ, in a facetious way, the italics 
found in the quotation. 

The accounts relating to the efforts of Mr. Grant to 
secure the appointment of his son to West Point vary 
in several biographies. Even the Memoirs are partly 
in error, but this should not cause surprise when the 



THE DOOR ro WEiiT POINT IS OPENED 17 

painful conditions in which that great work was writ- 
ten are considered. The subject is important enough 
to warrant a correction of the errors. 

In the autumn of 1838, Thomas Morris of Ohio, 
a member of the United States Senate, visited George- 
town, and on that occasion Mr. Grant spoke to him rela- 
tive to the appointment of Hiram to West Point. Later 
in the season, evidently early in December, he wrote a 
letter to Morris, the answer to which he read to Hiram 
at Christmastide. The power to appoint cadets to the 
Military Academy was vested in the Representative in 
Congress, and the sitting member from that district was 
Thomas L. Hamer, a resident of Georgetown, and, of 
course, an acquaintance of the Grant family. But 
there were strained relations existing between Mr. 
Hamer and Mr. Grant; and the Memoirs say: "Under 
these circumstances my father would not write to Mr. 
Hamer for the appointment, and he wrote Senator Mor- 
ris, informing him that there was a vacancy at West 
Point from our district. . . . This letter, I pre- 
sume, was turned over to Mr. Hamer, and as there was 
no other applicant, he cheerfully appointed me." 

At this point the Memoirs are in error. It is pre- 
sumable that Senator Morris, in corresponding with 
Mr. Grant, urged him to make a direct application to 
Mr. Hamer for the appointment. The father's heart 
was firmly set on his son entering the Academy. In a 
matter that so deeply concerned him, he had the good 
sense to forget and forgive. His asperity, so far as his 



18 GRAST, THE J/^A Ob' MYiiTERY 

relation to Mr. Hamer was concerned, was softened, 
and lie wrote the following letter: 

"Georgetown, Feb. 19, 1839. 
Hon. Thomas L. Hamer: 

"Dear Sir: — In consequence of a remark of Mr. 
Morris while here last fall, I was induced to apply to 
the War Department, through him, for a cadet appoint- 
ment of my son, H. Ulysses. 

"A letter this evening received from the Depart- 
ment informs me that you only are entitled to the 
nomination and that your consent would be necessary to 
enable him to obtain the appointment. 

"I have thought it advisable to consult you on the 
subject. And if you have no other person in view for 
the appointment, and feel willing to consent to the ap- 
pointment of Ulysses, you will please signify that con- 
sent to the Department. 

"When I last wrote Mr. Morris I referred him to 
you to recommend the young man if that were necessary. 
"Respectfully yours, 

"Jesse R. Grant. 

"Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, M.C., 
"Washington City." 

It was this letter, written to a personal and political 
adversary, that opened to young Grant the door to his 
great career, Mr. Henry C. Badger of Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, secured the original letter in 1868 from 
the daughter of General Hamer, then living at Mount 
Vernon, Indiana, and it is now among the treasures of 



THE DOOR TO WEST POIXT IS OPENED 19 

the Massachusetts Historical Society of Boston. Its 
first appearance in print was in the K^ew York Tribune, 
in 1886. 

The appointment of Hiram to the Academj Avas a 
magnanimous act on the part of Mr. Hamer, and little 
did he realize how much it meant to history. There 
was an enmity apjjroaching bitterness between the con- 
gressman and Mr. Grant. "To the victors belong the 
spoils," was the shibboleth of the party then in power, 
and Mr. Hamer was a lifelong Democrat, and Mr. 
Grant a staunch Whig. 

It will be interesting to the readers to learn that 
when the war with Mexico was declared in 1846 — Mr. 
Hamer's term in Congress having expired — he enlisted 
as a private in the army in which Grant was then serv- 
ing as a second lieutenant, but in a few weeks was com- 
missioned a brigadier general. He distinguished him- 
self at the battle of Monterey, September 21-23, 1846, 
and on the 3d of the following December he died sud- 
denly in that city of malignant fever. 

The pathway of young Grant to the Military 
Academy was not strewed with promise and hope. He 
had no love for military life. In appearance, at least, 
he did not possess soldierly qualities. He could see in 
West Point only a temporary advantage. The curious 
condition of his heart and mind at this time is revealed 
in the Metnoirs: "Going to West Point would give me 
the opportunity of visiting the two great cities of the 
continent, Philadelphia and JSTew York. This was 



20 GRAXT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

enough. When these places were visited I would have 
been glad to have had a steamboat or a railroad col- 
lision, or any other accident happen, by which I might 
have received a temporary injury sufficient to make me 
ineligible, for a time, to enter the Academy. Nothing 
of the kind occurred, and I had to face the music." 

Here begins one of the strangest and most interest- 
ing chapters of American biography ; and here, also, we 
catch a glimpse of Grant — the man of mystery. 



IV. 




THE WEST POINT CADET. 

IRAM ULYSSES GRANT reported at 
West Point in the last week of May, 1839. 
He was seventeen years old, a good, all 
around boy, but not ambitious. The exam- 
ination, for which he had so much dread, was passed 
successfully. Yet he fancied himself out of place in 
the Academy. What he was there for he hardly knew. 
He was of that temperamental type which made it slow 
work for him to reach a definite decision as to what his 
purpose in life should be. Thus far he was a stranger 
to mental discipline or action expressive of sentiment 
or passion. And the one thing which was farthest re- 
moved from him was the dream of military glory. 

When Mr. Hamer nominated young Grant for a 
cadetship, he sent the name, Ulysses S. Grant, to the 
War Department, supposing his second name was Simp- 
son, the maiden name of his mother. The name given 



22 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

him ill infancy was Hiram Ulysses, but of this Mr. 
llamer had no knowledge. Although the error, un- 
wittingly committed, was a provoking one to the Grant 
family, neither the commandant at the Academy nor the 
Secretary of War deemed the matter of sufficient conse- 
quence to warrant correction. 

William T. Sherman was a cadet of three years' 
standing when young Grant entered the Academy, and 
speaking of the event many years afterwards, he said : 
''In that year there appeared on the walls of the hall in 
Old North Barracks, a list of new cadets, among them 
U. S. Grant. A crowd of lookers-on read. United States 
Grant, Uncle Sam Grant, and Sam Grant he is known 
to-day in the tradition of the Old Fourth U. S. In- 
fantry. Cadet Grant tried to correct this error at the 
beginning and end of his cadet life without success, and 
to history his name must ever be U. S. Grant." 

I have already intimated that the life of a soldier 
had no charms for Cadet Grant. He was in no condi- 
tion of mind to push his studies. At the beginning of 
his cadetship no vision which vitalized his hope came to 
him. He did not have the eye of faith which sees the 
prize at the end long before it is reached. He tells us 
that he had not the remotest idea of staying in the army 
even should he be fortunate enough to be graduated, 
which he did not expect. 

A bill was before Congress in 1839, to abolish the 
West Point Academy, and Cadet Grant fervently hoped 
it would become a law, that he might be relieved from 



THE WEST POINT CADET 23 

the obligation of spending four years at the school. 
When the bill failed to pass he was sorely disappointed, 
and writing of the occasion, he says: "Time hung 
drearily with me. My idea then was to get through the 
course, secure a detail for a few years as assistant pro- 
fessor of mathematics, and afterwards obtain a perma- 
nent position as professor in some respectable college; 
but circumstances always did shape my course different 
from my plans." 

There are no incidents of an unusual character on 
record pertaining to Cadet Grant's life at the Academy. 
But the study of his quiet, unambitious life at that 
period is of particular importance. The thing that fills 
one with wonder is the contrasting of his standing as a 
military student with the marvellous ability he dis- 
played as a commander of great armies in the War of 
the Eebellion. 

Cadet Grant was highly esteemed at the Academy. 
He was kindly disposed, never provoked a quarrel, was 
a companionable room-mate, and his cool judgment and 
constant fairness Avere so observable that he was fre- 
quently called upon to umpire disputes among cadets. 
But in one thing he was lacking. 'No great passion 
burned in his soul. His habits were not of the studious 
kind. His mental capacity was sufficient for the ac- 
complishment of great things, but his deficient energy 
kept him from pushing towards the mark for the prize 
of high standing in his class. He had not then, and had 
never afterwards, the gift of self-advertisement; and 



24 GRAXT. THE MAS OF MYSTERY 

after lie got fairly well started in his studies, the best 
he could say for himself is in this characteristic sentence 
to his father : "I don't expect to make very fast prog- 
ress, but I will try to hold on to what I get." Here was 
somewhat a foreshadowing of the bulldog tenacity which 
afterwards made him so famous. His constant draw- 
back at this period was the absence, to all appearances, 
of military instincts and inclinations ; and hence in after 
years he was prompted to confess, "I never succeeded in 
getting squarely at either end of my class, in any study, 
during the four years." 

The better way to obtain an insight into Cadet 
Grant's life at the Academy — for this is important in 
considering the mystery of his character — is to accept 
the statements of men of high standing Avho were his 
classmates at that time. 

Among the young men who registered at West Point 
with Grant, and were graduated with him, was George 
Deshon, of Connecticut, who, fifteen years later became 
Superior General of the Paulists, in New York. When 
the Independent asked Father Deshon for some recol- 
lections of Grant, he said: "Grant was not what we 
called military. He was careless in his dress, and did 
not pay much attention to the minutiae of drill. For 
two years we w^ere both high privates in the company. 
. . . We had a good many laughs about our military 
cadet rank. He was at the foot of the list and I was 
next above him. The next year Avhen the appointment 
of cadet officers was made, he returned to the rank of 



THE WEST POINT CADET 25 

private, and I took foot of the list. He had a good head 
for mathematics and other studies; but he was not a 
hard student. . . . He got a great deal of demerits 
for trifling carelessness in military matters which low- 
ered his general standing in the class. . . . He was 
free from all profanity, and his conversation was pure. 
He did not drink liquor or use tobacco. One of his 
characteristic traits was a great straightforwardness and 
a scrupulous regard for truth." 

Many curious stories have been circulated relative 
to Grant's life at the Academy, but as they do not pos- 
sess authentic quality they cannot be used as illustrating 
the character of the real Grant, and therefore cannot be 
repeated here. 

Another authority of high merit who is well worth 
quoting is Professor Henry Coppee : "The honor of be- 
ing Grant's comrade for two years at the Academy en- 
ables me to speak more intelligently, perhaps, than those 
of the 'new school' who have invented the most absurd 
stories to illustrate his cadet life. I remember him as a 
plain, common-sense, straightforward youth ; shunning 
notoriety; quite content while others were grumbling, 
taking to his military duties in a business-like manner ; 
not a prominent man in the corps, but respected by all. 
His sobriquet of 'Uncle Sam' was given to him there, 
where every good fellow has a nickname, from these 
very qualities. Indeed he was a very uncle-like sort of 
a youth. He exhibited but little enthusiasm in any- 
thing." 



2G GRAM\ THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

If Cadet Graut were lacking in enthusiasm in every- 
thing while in the Academy, he was exhibiting a char- 
acteristic trait which was inseparable from the man. 
He was never an enthusiast. No one ever heard him 
shout for joy, or give sonorous vent to anger. If he were 
not an enthusiastic student in most branches taught at 
the Academy, he showed creditable advancement in 
natural philosophy, engineering, mathematics, and 
horsemanship. In a quiet, undemonstrative way he 
was unconsciously preparing for one supreme hour. 
But to the student of human nature, and to the keen 
reader of character then at the school, it did seem that 
between Cadet Grant and General Grant, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the largest army any republic ever 
organized, there was an impassable gulf. 




V. 

ANECDOTES, PROPHECIES. AND GRADUATION. 

T has already been said that Cadet Grant ex- 
celled in mathematics and horsemanship. 
The exactitude of the former, of whatever 
branch, gave him no trouble, and as to the 
latter, his skill and courage were phenomenal. 

Major General Jacob D. Cox, commander of the 
Twenty-third Army Corps in the Civil War, says Grant 
did not lack the sense of humor, and thoiTgh his voice 
did not possess volume, and seemed thin and high-keyed, 
his natural shyness did not prevent him from telling an 
occasional story with good effect. During the war lie 
related an interesting experience in his riding exercise 
at the Academy. 

Tlie riding-master was II. E. Hershberger, "an 
amusing sort of n tyrant," and on one occasion, whether 
seriously or as a joke, he determined to "take down" 
the vouno' cadet. At the exercise Grant was mounted 



•2.S GRANT, THE MAX OF ^fySTERY 

on a powerful but vicious brute that the cadets fought 
shy of, and was put at leaping the bar. The bar was 
placed liigher and higher as he came round the ring, 
till it passed the "record." The stubborn rider would 
not say "Enough" ; but the stubborn horse was disposed 
to shy and refuse to make the leap. Grant gritted his 
teeth and spurred at it, but just as the horse gathered 
for the spring, his swelling body burst the girth, and the 
rider and saddle tumbled into the ring. Half stunned, 
Grant gathered himself up from the dust only to hear 
"the strident, cynical voice of Hershberger calling out : 
'Cadet Grant, six demerits for dismounting without 
leave!'" 

But the most graphic description of Grant's riding 
ability is given by General James B. Fry, who entered 
West Point the year the former was graduated. 

"One afternoon in June, 1843, while I was at West 
Point, I wandered into the riding hall where the mem- 
bers of the graduating class were going through their 
final mounted exercises before a large assemblage of 
spectators. When the regular services were completed, 
the class was formed in line through the center of the 
hall, the riding-master placed the leaping bar higher 
than a man's head, and called out, 'Cadet Grant'! A 
clean-faced, slender, blue-eyed young fellow, weighing 
about one hundred and twenty pounds, dashed from the 
ranks on a powerfully built horse, and galloped down 
the opposite side of the hall. As he turned at the far- 
ther end and came into the straight stretch across which 



ANECDOTES, PROPHECIES, AXD OIIADUATIOX 29 

the bar was placed, the horse increased his pace, and 
measuring his strides for the great leap before him, 
bounded into the air and cleared the bar, carrying his 
rider as if man and beast had been welded together. 
The spectators were breathless! 'Very well done, sir!' 
growled old Hershberger." 

The bar had been placed six feet and five inches 
high, and was the highest jump ever recorded at the 
academy, and next to the highest ever known in the 
United States. 

Two months before Grant's death, General Fry 
visited him, and speaking of the riding hall scene, the 
dying man Avhispered : ''I remember that very well ; 
York was a wonderful horse. I could feel him gather- 
ing under me for the effort as he approached the bar." 

"Have you heard anything of Hershberger, lately ?" 
asked General Fry. "Oh, yes," replied the General, "I 
have heard of him since the war. He was at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, old and poor, and I sent him a check for 
fifty dollars." 

Time had tempered the manners and toned down 
the voice of the once gruff old riding-master, and in 
recognition of his former pupil's kind remembrance of 
him in his shadowy days, no doubt there came from a 
grateful heart, but in silent tones, "Very well done, 
sir I Very well done !" 

Although Grant's standing at the academy did not 
give promise of a successful military career, it was all- 
sufficient for the work he seemed to be foreordained to 



30 GRANT, THE MAS' OF MYSTERY 

perform. Hidden by an uninilitary spirit and an nn- 
soldierly bearing was a snrprisingly large military ca- 
pacity. Any other training of his peculiar mind would 
have so changed his circumstances as to place him in 
entirely different relations to the events which ulti- 
mately moulded him into the commander the country 
so much needed, when rebellion threatened the exist- 
ence of the Union. 

When Grant was graduated from West Point in the 
summer of 1843, he stood twenty-one in a class of 
thirty-nine. Perhaps he would have stood a little 
higher had he not contracted a severe cough some six 
months prior to graduation, which greatly interfered 
with his studies. 

There was an indefinable something iu Cadet Grant 
which attracted the attention of a few keen observers 
at the school. To those his personality was somewhat 
of a magnet. There was a mystery about him of pecu- 
liar attractiveness to those who got close enough to him 
to read him best. And a conscientious biographer hesi- 
tates to quote some of the alleged prophecies made by 
those who knew Grant at West Point, lest they might 
have had their origin after he had won the applause of 
the world. Such stock-stories, like those about Lincoln, 
being easily made, are numerous. But the following 
incident is authenticated by General Eliakin P. Scam- 
mon, professor of ethics at the academy from 1841 till 
1846: 

The night after Grant's class was graduated. Pro- 



ANECDOTES, PROPHEVIEii, AND GRADUATION HI 

fessor Charles Davies, the eminent mathematician, and 
teacher in the academy at the time, asked Scammon 
whom he considered the brightest man in the class. 
Scammon answered: "I suppose the brightest mind is 
the one that carries off the highest honors." "You are 
wrong," replied Davies. "I tell you the smartest man 
in the class is little Grant." Professor Davies con- 
tended that it was Grant's untidiness that brought down 
his average standing, and not poverty of intellectual 
capacity. 

To this chapter may well be added the statement of 
an unknown writer : West Point, in making the gift of 
this one cadet, has paid back all the cost it has incurred 
since its foundation one hundred and thirteen years ao-o. 




VI. 

IN THE MEXICAN WAR. 

N his graduation, Cadet Grant met with a 
defeat hardly less severe than the failure 
of Congress to pass the bill to abolish the 
Military Academy. He tells us that the 
members of the graduating class were privileged to 
record their choice of arms and service and regiment. 
Having a fondness for horses, though his native mod- 
esty excluded any self-appreciation of the matchless 
record he made with old York, he preferred the cavalry. 
At that time there Avas only one regiment of cavalry in 
the service and no vacancy for a commissioned officer 
existed when his choice was recorded, and therefore he 
was assigned to the Fourth Infantry as a brevet second 
lieutenant. He joined the regiment at Jefferson Bar- 
racks, near St. Louis, in the latter part of September, 
1843, and when the trouble with Mexico began, an op- 



T\ THE MEXICAN WAR X^ 

portuiiity was given him to show how he would behave 
in time of battle. 

But there is another incident in the life of this 
young officer which should be given before proceeding 
further. It is curious how things failed to work to- 
gether to meet the hopes and aspirations of his early 
life. Hardly anything went exactly his way. He 
planned, but a power unseen disposed. When he ar- 
rived at Jefferson Barracks it was his firm purpose not 
to remain in the army. He could not warm up to the 
profession of arms. He saw nothing in it for one of his 
temperament and bent of mind. So he resolved to pre- 
pare himself for the chair of mathematics in some col- 
lege, preferably a professorship in the military 
academy. He wrote a letter to Professor Church at 
West Point, asking to become his assistant when the 
next detail should be made. The answer was satisfac- 
tory, and the lieutenant was hopeful. He began to re- 
view his West Point course, but this was as far as he 
ever got towards the goal of his ambition. As "the 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera," so the 
course of events defeated all his cherished plans to es- 
cape an army life. The trouble with Mexico began be- 
fore Professor Church saw an opportunity to give the 
lieutenant an assistant professorship, and his hope of 
ever being ordered to the academy vanished forever. 

Lieutenant Grant's regiment was assigned to Gen- 
eral Zachary Taylor's command in Mexico, and in Sep- 
tember, 1845, he received a full commission as second 



34 ORAXT, THE MA\ OF MYSTERY 

lieutenant; and it is claimed that he had a speedier 
baptism of fire than most West Point graduates. It is 
certain that he saw much service during the twenty 
months of hostilities ; and is credited with being in all 
the battles during that period in which it was possible 
for any one man to be engaged. 

It was at the battle of Palo Alto, May 8th, 1846, 
that Lieutenant Grant first saw the shedding of blood 
on the battlefield. He was also at Resaca de la Palma 
on the following day, after which Taylor's little army 
moved to Matamoros, on the west side of the Rio 
Grande, and here belongs a significant quotation from 
the Memoirs: 

"Among the troops that joined us at Matamoros was 
the Twenty-third Ohio, of which Thomas L. Hamer, the 
member of Congress who had given me my appoint- 
ment to West Point, was major. ... I have said 
before that Hamer was one of the ablest men Ohio ever 
produced. ... I have always believed that had 
his life been spared he would have been President of 
the United States during the term filled by President 
Pierce. Had Hamer filled that office his partiality for 
me was such that there is little doubt I should have been 
aijpointed to one of the staff corps of the army, the Pay 
Dei)artmont probably, and would therefore now (1884) 
1)0 preparing to retire. Neither of these speculations is 
unreasonable, and they are mentioned to show how lit- 
tle men control their own destiny." 

When General Taylor was preparing to move his 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 35 

army at the close of the summer of 1846, to Monterey 
in I^orthern Mexico, it became quite evident that a 
competent quartermaster was as necessary for a regi- 
ment as a gallant colonel, and it is significant that 
Grant, ranking only as a second lieutenant, should be 
detailed as quartermaster and commissary of the Fourth 
Infantry. Of course Grant was not pleased with the 
detail. It was an ideal position for an officer who pre- 
ferred not to get dangerously near the enemy's guns ; 
but with Lieutenant Grant it was different. As much 
as he disliked the profession of arms, the closer he got 
to the enemy when a battle was on, the more comfort- 
able he felt. The firing line did more than anything 
else to warm his blood. It made him feel as if he were 
doing something worth while. He got the appointment 
because the colonel of the regiment knew that in all the 
vexations attending the administration of such an office, 
Lieutenant Grant would hold himself together. He had 
learned from his mother that an ounce of patience is 
worth more than a pound of passion ; and never having 
used profane expletives to give emphasis to his action, 
he did not change his habit of being a gentleman even 
when managing the refractory Mexican mules which 
composed the pack-train. 

But Lieutenant Grant was in the war to fight and 
not to contend with the proverbial stubbornness of the 
army mule ; so after being detailed as quartermaster, he 
thought he owed his parents an apology for accepting 
the position, and he wrote them these lines: ^'I do not 



36 GJtAXT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

mean you shall over hear of luy shirking my duty in 
battle. My new post as quartermaster is considered to 
afford an officer an opportunity to be relieved from 
fighting, but I do not, and cannot, see it in that light. 
You have always taught me that the post of danger is 
the post of duty." 

It will be seen from this characteristic note, and the 
events related in the next chapter, that Lieutenant 
Grant was an anomaly very early in his military career. 
As keenly as he felt he was out of his proper sphere as 
an army officer, he seems to have been a born fighter in 
war. The whizzing of l)ullets or the screaming of shells 
Avas not less dreadful to him than the shrill note of 
the fife or the rattle of the drum, for which he had a 
great dislike. He was more at ease with himself in the 
fighting column than in the quartermaster's tent ; more 
content to test his courage on the line of duty and 
danger, than to flatter himself that he could serve his 
government just as well behind a barricade of com- 
missary stores. The old saying that all men would be 
cowards if they durst, was not true of this young quar- 
termaster. It would seem that the idea that "courage is 
an essential of high character," was born in the man. 



VII. 




A FIGHTING QUARTERMASTER. 

HE army which left Matamoros in the latter 
part of August, 1846, invested Monterey in 
September. The fight which began on the 
21st of the month continued for three days, 
when the city and garrison surrendered. 

"Take all the swift advantage of the hour," says 
Shakespeare. Quartermaster Grant did this at Mon- 
terey. He left his mules and commissary stores, pre- 
sumably in charge of another officer, and took part in 
the battle. When fighting had to be done it w^as a 
stimulant for him to take a part in it. It was at Mon- 
terey that he had a fortunate opportunity to exemplify 
his skill as a horseman. In all his military career he 
never neglected an opportunity to do something. 

Colonel John Garland, a veteran of the war of 1812, 
was in command of a brigade at Monterey, and in one 
stage of the battle, when his supply of powder became 



38 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

alarmingly low, it was necessary to send a message to 
General Twiggs, commanding the division, or to Gen- 
eral Taylor, for immediate relief. Between Garland's 
brigade and the positions held by Taylor and Twiggs, 
the street crossings were swept by the enemy's guns, 
hence the ride was so fraught with danger that the 
Colonel hesitated to make a detail to carry the message, 
and called for a volunteer. There was never a tremor 
in Quartermaster Grant's courage. To be the first one 
to volunteer to run the gauntlet of the Mexican bullets 
was a natural thing for him to do. It was a diversion 
he had long sought for. He borroAvcd a trick from tlie 
Indians, and hanging by the horse's mane upon his side, 
he galloped at full speed in safety i)ast the fire of the 
enemy, and delivered the message. 

The Fourth Infantry remained at JMonterc)' until 
winter, when it became a part of the army under the 
immediate command of General Winfield Scott, and 
this change from the army of Taylor, the "Old Eough 
and Keady" of the Mexican War, prevented Quarter- 
master Grant from taking part in the battle at Buena 
Vista (February 22, 1847), the only important engage- 
ment in Mexico in which infantry was employed that 
he escaped. 

After the fall of Vera Cruz, March 29, 1847, Scott's 
army began a bold movement towards the City of Mex- 
ico, a distance of more than two hundred miles by the 
marching route. The first encounter that took place 
between the o})posing forces was at Cerro Gordo, a 



A FIGHTIAG QUARTERMASTER 39 

mountain jjass, and the contest for the right of way be- 
gan on the 18th of April, 1847. Scott had 8,500 men, 
and Santa Anna 12,000. The pass was so deep that 
"artillery was let down the steep slopes by hand, the 
men attaching a strong rope to the rear axle and letting 
the guns down, a piece at a time." It was a winning 
fight for the Americans, Santa Anna making his re- 
treat on the 19th and pushing for his capital, the City 
of Mexico. 

Strange indeed are the chances and changes which 
take place in the affairs of men! In this battle of 
Cerro Gordo were Lieutenant George B. McClellan, 
and Captain Robert E. Lee of the engineer corps, and 
Lieutenant Pierre G. J. Beauregard. What a mighty 
event time brought forth exactly eighteen years and ten 
days from the taking of the mountain pass ! In human 
history nothing has been written to surpass it in wonder. 

After the capture of Cerro Gordo, Scott moved his 
army towards the City of Mexico, and the first engage- 
ment of a distinguishing character was at Molino del 
Key, September 8, 1847, General Worth being in im- 
mediate command of the forces engaged. The place is 
four miles from the City of Mexico ; and had several 
massive stone buildings used as mills and foundries. 
The battle was one of the hardest of the war, and both 
sides suffered severely. 

The Americans fought this battle against great dis- 
advantages. The mills and foundries were strongly 
guarded within by Mexican soldiers, and the ground in 



40 GRAXT, THE MAX OF MYHTERY 

front was commanded by the artillery from the summit 
of Chapiiltepec, not more than half a mile away. The 
only course left for General Worth was to charge the 
mills and foundries ; so early in the morning the com- 
mand was given, and with sublime courage the men 
rushed forward in the face of a galling fire, and when 
they had reached the buildings the Mexicans were re- 
treating to the castle on the hill of Chapultepec. 

Quartermaster Grant could not keep out of the fight. 
He joined his company when the charge was ordered, 
and was among the first of the officers to enter the mills. 
His every movement connected with the capture of 
Molino del Key displayed exceptional alertness and 
bravery. 

The retreat of the enemy to Chapultepec made 
another battle inevitable. General Pillow, who gained 
some notoriety during the Civil "War, commanded tlio 
charge which was made on the 13th of September, 1847, 
and which was one of remarkable sharpness and daring. 
When Quartermaster Grant was reconnoitering during 
the latter part of the day, and while the storming of 
Chapultepec was severest, he spied a church with a bel- 
fry. This discovery at once suggested a novel idea. 
He thought if a howitzer could be hauled up into the 
belfry its shots would reach the enemy. A howitzer 
was soon obtained, and although the difficulties in reach- 
ing the church were embarrassing, the little engine of 
war was taken apart, carried by men to the belfry, and 
its parts replaced. The position was about three hun- 



A FIGHTIXG QUARTERMASTER 41 

tired viirds from the gate of San Cosine. Tlie gun was 
put in operation b}^ Quartermaster Grant, and every 
time it barked, its deadly shot startled the Mexicans in 
the castle. General Worth was so much pleased with 
the heroism and ingenuity of the quartermaster, that 
after the capture of Chapultepec he dispatched a staff 
officer to him with the request that he report to division 
headquarters, where the general thanked him cordially 
for the valuable service he had rendered in the assault. 
The staff officer was Captain John C. Pemberton ; and 
fate — but rather, that Power that shapes the coming of 
all great events — decreed that when those two young 
officers, the quartermaster and the captain, should next 
meet on official business, it would be under immeasur- 
ably different conditions, and the place was Vicksburg, 
and the date July 4, 1863. 

The capture of Chapultepec practically ended the 
war with Mexico, and Scott entered the capital on the 
14th of September, 1847. 

Speaking of those times Grant says he had gone 
into the battle of Palo Alto in May, 184G, a second 
lieutenant, and entered the City of JMexico sixteen 
months later with the same rank, and had been in all 
the engagements possible for any one man, and in a 
regiment that lost more officers during the wai' than it 
ever had present in any one battle. And one can read 
between the lines of his story a feeling of disappoint- 
ment in not having been promoted. He was a man of 
much reserve, not ambitious, never a grumbler, and al- 



42 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

ways exhibited the highest standard of efficiency in the 
service. But he was hnman, and would have been 
filled with gratitude had his services been adequately 
recognized. He was made a first lieutenant for bravery 
at Molino del Rey, and for pouring hot shot into the 
Mexican ranks from the church steeple at Chapultepec 
he was breveted captain, which carried no additional 
pay and was a small acknowledgement compared with 
his achievements. 

It is curious enough, if the records be true, that 
Lieutenant Grant appears to have made no deep impres- 
sion upon those about him ; an exception, perhaps, w^as 
the gracious acknowledgement by General Worth. But 
when Grant became famous, General Scott said he could 
only remember him in the Mexican War as a young 
lieutenant of undaunted courage, but giving no promise 
of anvthing; bevond ordinarv ability. 



VIII. 
THE LIEUTENANT BECAME A BENEDICT. 




FTEII peace was declared, Lieutenant 
Grant continued to bold the position of 
quartermaster, and remained in Mexico 
until the summer of 1848, when the regi- 
ment was ordered to Pascagoula, Mississippi. While 
here he obtained a leave of absence for the purpose of 
making an eventful visit to St. Louis. During the en- 
campment of the Fourth Infantry at Jefferson Bar- 
racks, previous to the outbreak of the war with Mexico, 
Lieutenant Grant visited the family of Frederick 
Dent, who lived on a farm five miles west of the city. 
Frederick T., a son of Mr. Dent, was a roommate of 
Grant at the Academy, and when the two young officers 
were assigned to the same regiment, it was quite in keep- 
ing with their friendly relationship that Grant should 
])e invited to visit the Dent home, where he became 
acquainted with liis comrade's eldest sister, Miss Julia. 



44 GRAM', THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

A wiinn friendshii) was formed between them, which 
soon rijDened into love ; an engagement followed, and 
their marriage was celebrated August 22, 1848. 

The Dents were well-to-do people. The bride was 
born and reared in a slave state, and her attendant in 
childhood and young womanhood was a slave belonging 
to the household. It was natural therefore that the 
family should be imbued, in some degree, with the spirit 
of the South, while the groom could not be otherwise 
than thoroughly I^^orthern in his sympathies. But 
there was a lot of good sense as well as natural affection 
at the bottom of the marriage; and although the lieu- 
tenant was receiving hardly more than a thousand a 
year, and with little hope of immediate advancement, 
he was welcomed most cordially to the circle of the Dent 
family. 

When the leave of absence of four months which had 
been granted Lieutenant Grant had expired, he was ac- 
companied by his wife in joining his regiment at Sack- 
ett's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, sixty miles north of 
Syracuse, IST. Y. It was in former years an important 
naval station, and it was here that the Americans re- 
pulsed the British in May, 1813. Grant had been so 
efficient as quartermaster of his regiment in the war 
with Mexico, that he was requested to retain the same 
position at Sackett's Harbor. 

The occupation of the Harbor by the Fourth In- 
fantry was brief, the regiment being ordered to the gar- 
rison at Detroit in the spring of 1849. Holding a gar- 



THE LIEUTENANT BECAME A BENEDICT 45 

risen when nothing is to be done but to perform the rou- 
tine duties of an inactive army life is dull enough at 
best, but perhaps the most enjoyable of any period of 
Grant's connection with the army in those days was at 
Detroit. He has very little to say of events of that time, 
owing to the fact that his turn of mind was too practi- 
cal to make much ado about the social side of camp life. 
Gossip, which is not worth repeating, is abundant 
enough, but history pertaining to matters of real con- 
cern is very scant. Mrs. Grant remained with her hus- 
band continuously, excepting for a few months in the 
spring of 1850, when she visited her old home in St. 
Louis, where Frederick Dent Grant, now a major gen- 
eral in the regular army, was born on May 30th of that 
year. 

Then, as now, a regiment in the regular service had 
no abiding place. After the Fourth Infantry had re- 
mained at Detroit two years, and for a short time was 
retransferred to Sackett's Harbor, it was ordered to the 
Pacific Coast by the way of the Isthmus of Panama. 
The distance was so long, and the movement was at- 
tended with so much hardship and danger to health, 
that Mrs. Grant could not accompany her husband. 
Therefore arrangements were made for her to spend 
some time with the Lieutenant's parents at Bethel, 
Ohio, to which the family had removed while the son 
was at the military academy. 

The regiment sailed from Xew York on the 5th of 
July, 1S52, and arrived at Aspinwall (now called 



46 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Colon) close to the Isthmus of Panama. When we 
want a striking illustration of Lieutenant Grant's cool- 
headedness, never-failing patience, and peculiar fitness 
for the responsible position of quartermaster in time of 
great emergency, we must turn to his record on this 
memorable expedition of the Fourth Infantry. All 
kinds of hampering difficulties were in store for the 
troops when they reached Colon. Cholera was almost 
an epidemic. The season was excessively wet. The 
heat was intensely debilitating. Deaths were num- 
bered by the score. With the incidents of those trying 
times firmly held in the mind, Grant wrote many years 
afterwards: "I wondered how any person could live 
many months in Aspinwall, and wonder still more why 
anyone tried." 

The quartermaster ministered to the sick as well as 
provided food for the regiment. He was the busiest 
officer in the command, and the best tempered. In the 
midst of confusion, complaints, suffering, sickness, and 
death, he was the same patient, tireless man and heroic 
spirit. I know of no period of Grant's first connection 
with the army that reveals the true character of the man 
more impressively than the performance of his duty as 
quartermaster while crossing the Isthmus, where one- 
seventh of the members of the Fourth Infantry who left 
Xew York on the 5th of July lie buried. During the 
stress and strain of that movement he displayed many 
of the qualities of the real Grant — courage, quick per- 
ception, ceaseless energy, sympathy for the suffering, 



THE LIEUTENANT BECAME A BENEDICT 47 

and ability to deal promptly and thoroughly with cvei-y 
problem which confronted him. This condition of 
things brought out an entirely different phase of char- 
acter from that displayed in Mexico. There, he was a 
persistent fighter ; on the Isthmus he showed uncommon 
courage in contending with malignant disease, strength 
to endure privation, ability to w^ork incessantly for the 
relief of suffering, and a touching self-sacrifice for the 
welfare of the common soldier dependent upon him for 
food and shelter. 




IX. 

COAST LIFE -THE " PARTING OF THE WAY." 

HEN the Fourth Infantry reached San 
Francisco it occupied the Benician Bar- 
racks for a few weeks, and was then ordered 
to Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, 
opposite Portland, Oregon, and while there Lieutenant 
Grant filled the position of Post Quartermaster. Con- 
cerning" this period of his service on the Pacific coast, 
little can be said. There was no particular trouble with 
the Indians in this section of the coast, and therefore 
the chief employment of the regiment was the routine 
of barrack life. 

Grant had been first lieutenant and quartermaster 
since the last battle was fought in Mexico, and was wait- 
ing, though not without seeming impatience, for pro- 
motion. It was not till September, 1853, when he had 
been in the army ten years, that he received informa- 
tion that the War Department at Washington had pro- 



COAST LIFE— THE TARTING OF TUB WAY" 49 

muted him to a captaincy, and had assigned him to 
Company F, Fourth Infantry, the detachment at that 
time being stationed at Humboldt Bay, nearly two hun- 
dred and lifty miles north of San Francisco. 

Taking Grant himself as authority, he very soon de- 
parted for his new command and reached Humboldt 
Bay some time in October. Here his own story of his 
services on the Pacific Coast ends abruptly. He does 
not give a single line relative to his life at Humboldt, a 
period of seven months. They were, however, months 
of great moment, and had much to do with shaping his- 
tory. But those who knew Grant's temperament will 
hardly be surprised at the omission. 

Grant was not a Franklin in writing au autobiog- 
raphy. The great philosopher, diplomat, scientist, 
could keep nothing back when he wrote the inimitable 
story of his own life. But the great campaigner, the 
man of action and of invincible will, while deeply af- 
fected by the experiences at Humboldt, was so reticent 
concerning all that pertained to his personal life, that 
it is difficult to get at the inside history of those seven 
months. 

Humboldt Barracks was a dreary place. To Cap- 
tain Grant military life in such an isolated spot was 
monotonous in the extreme. If there had been Indians 
to fight, or a regiment to feed, he would have felt dif- 
ferently. But the amusements, common in a lazy bar- 
rack life, in which other officers would freely indulge, 
did not appeal to the Captain. He was a sober-minded. 



50 GRANT, TUB J/ A A OF MYSTERY 

ahj, domestic man, and when not actively employed he 
had intense longing for home, and it seems that he had 
lost his grip on himself. It was a common matter for 
many army officers to live a convivial life in such cir- 
cumstances. But it was different with Captain Grant. 

Once we saw this intrepid soul displaying wonder- 
ful fearlessness in the Mexican War. We beheld his 
admirable heroism and patience on the expedition across 
the Isthmus of Panama. But at Humboldt, to use a 
figurative expression, he was flat on the groiind. Will 
power had gone from liim, so had hope. It does not 
touch the nerve of the case to say that Captain Grant 
ought to have braced up. The best of men are not al- 
ways at their best. AVhen chained to inertia and cramp- 
ing conditions, from which there seems to be no escape, 
they break down. 

The commander of the detachment at Humboldt 
was Kobert C. Buchanan of the Fourth Infantry. He 
was a severe disciplinarian, and strong in his prejudices. 
He seems to have expressed no good will for the Cap- 
tain, and did not at any time take cognizance of his 
reputable record as an officer. With such a commander 
at Fort Humboldt the condition became unbearable to 
the Captain, and his eager desire for the companionship 
of his wife and children was intensified. And it can well 
be imagined that there is deep pathos in the story of his 
seven months at Humboldt. The passing of thirty 
years had not effaced from his memory the humiliation 
he suffered during that period. All he has to say in 



COAST LIFE— THE 'PARTING OF THE WAY" 51 

the Memoirs pertaining to his resignation from the 
army is composed of fifty-one words : ''I saw no chance 
of supporting them (his family) on the Pacific Coast 
out of my pay as an army officer. I concluded, there- 
fore, to resign, and in March (1854) applied for a 
leave of absence until the end of July following, ten- 
dering my resignation to take effect at the end of that 
time." The resignation was dated April 11, 1854, and 
on the 2d of July it was accepted by Jefferson Davis, 
then Secretary of War. 

We have now come to ''the parting of the way" in 
(\i[)tain Grant's service in the old army. His resigna- 
tion apparently made him like a piece of driftwood on 
the sea of life. 

Happily there is another side to the dismal story of 
his leaving the army which brings to full view some of 
the substantial qualities of the real man. It is like the 
silver lining to a storm cloud. Although his months at 
Humboldt were a dead-drag, and he suffered terribly 
from the relentless prejudice and harshness of his com- 
mander, he had the precious faculty of keeping his 
temper under control. Under those melancholy condi- 
tions he was the same clean, frank, honest, true gentle- 
man. 

At a "Grant meeting" of the California ComniaDd- 
ery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the 
United States, held in San Francisco in January 1897, 
General W. H. L. Barnes related a very remarkable 
story, one without parallel in the life of any other dis- 



52 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

tiiiguislied military leader known to history. The story 
is taken from the journal of Captain Kichard L. Ogden, 
who, in 1854, was clerk in the office of the United States 
quartermaster in San Francisco, I quote that which 
comes directly from Captain Ogden's record : 

"As I was about to close the office a shabbily dressed 
person came in and inquired for Major Allen (quarter- 
master) wdio had just left. He then produced a certifi- 
cate for per diem service on a court martial for forty 
dollars ; but it was incorrectly drawn and therefore void, 
of Avhich fact I informed him. His countenance fell 
and he turned to leave the office, then hesitated a mo- 
ment, and turning back, asked me if I would allow him 
to sleep on the old lounge in Major Allen's room, say- 
ing that he had not a cent to his name. I said : 'You 
need not do that; here is a dollar for your lodging.' 
He replied : 'I am greatly obliged, but with your per- 
mission I will use the money for my breakfast and din- 
ner, and the lounge will save me the dollar.' So, on the 
rickety old lounge I found him early in the morning, 
and when I said, 'You must have had a hard bed,' he 
answered : 'Oh no, I slept Avell and saved my dollar.' " 

Captain Grant told Ogdcn that the certificate was of 
much importance to him as he depended upon it to pay 
his steerage passage east. Ogden's sympathy had been 
awakened, and he said he would cash the certificate 
himself. This being done. Captain Grant said: "I am 
greatly obliged to you for this favor, and now I must 
go and get my ticket." 'Tt occurred to me," says Cap- 



COAST LIFE— THE "PARTIXG OF THE WAY" 53 

tain Ogdeii, ''that I could help Imn. Walking together 
we went over to the Pacific Mail Steamship office, and 
leaving the Captain outside, I explained to Mr. Bab- 
cock the condition of things, and told him that I wanted 
as near a free pass as he could give in the cabin. lie 
called to Mr. Havens, the ticket clerk, and gave orders 
to issue a cabin ticket on payment of the regular fare 
across the Isthmus, which was tantamount to a free pass 
to jSTew York. 

"When I told Captain Grant of my success he was 
exceedingly grateful, as the arrangement would leave 
him about fifteen dollars on his arrival in New York. 
When I showed him his stateroom, he said: 'This is a 
great luxury, and what I did not expect. The prospect 
of ever being able to reciprocate is certainly remote, 
but strange things happen in this world, and there is no 
knowing.' " 

After Captain Grant arrived in Is"ew York, he paid 
a visit to Sackett's Harbor, and returned to the city as 
penniless as when he had asked permission to sleep on 
Major Allen's couch. Learning that Captain S. B. 
Buckner, his classmate at West Point, was doing re- 
cruiting service in the city, he sought him out, and con- 
fided to him his financial distress. Captain Buckner 
graciously offered to become responsible for his hotel 
expenses incurred during his stay in New York; and 
history seldom records a stranger story than when these 
two old comrades next met to shake a friendly hand. 

A few days after this incident Captain Grant re- 



54 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

ceived money from liome which cuabled liim to visit his 
parents at Bethel, Ohio. His resignation from the army- 
was a surprise and a sore disappointment to the father. 
He took the matter so much to heart that on the 1st of 
June, 1854, he wrote to Jefferson Davis, Secretary of 
War, and pleaded for a reconsideration and a with- 
drawal of the resignation. The letter contained this 
significant paragraph : 

"I never wished him to leave the service. I think 
after spending so much time to qualify himself for the 
army and spending so many years in the service, he wall 
be poorly qualified for the pursuits of private life." 

The father's heart was almost broken when the War 
Department placed its seal of disapproval on his request 
for a reconsideration of the acceptance of the captain's 
resignation. It did appear as if the hope of his life 
had faded, for there was hardly a possible chance that 
his son, in business pursuits, could even attain to moder- 
ate success. 



X. 



AN UNSUCCESSFUL FARMER. 




HEN Captain Grant conchidecl his visit at 
Bethel, he joined his family in Missonri 
late in the summer of 1854. A new and 
curious problem confronted him. He was 
a private citizen. ISTothing had been saved from his 
pay as an army officer. For fifteen years he had had a 
government to support him ; now he must support him- 
self. He had performed no manual labor since enter- 
ing West Point in 1839. Although he confessed that 
he had no love for hard work, he now took an optimistic 
view of the situation. He was thirty-two years old, and 
was to begin a new life which surely did not promise 
satisfying results. 

About this time Mrs. Grant came into possession of 
eighty acres of land, the gift of her father, which was 
located ten miles west of St. Louis. There were no im- 
provements on the land, and neither the Captain nor his 



56 GRAXT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

wife had ineans to stock it. A house must be built — 
of logs, of course — and the officer, accustomed to wield 
the sword, now took the ax in hand. Trees were felled, 
logs were hewed, and a large double cabin, two stories 
high, was built. The neighbors had a high esteem for 
Captain Grant, and in his struggle to build the cabin 
more than two score men volunteered to assist in its con- 
struction. Of necessity the cabin was plainly furnished, 
but it provided a comfortable home for the little Grant 
family. 

By careful management the Captain became the 
owner of a fine team of horses, and thereby he was able 
to put a considerable portion of the land under cultiva- 
tion. To add to his slender income he would frequently 
haul a load of wood over the rough and muddy roads to 
St. Louis and sell it for cash. But after nearly four 
years of continuous labor, strict economy, and plain 
living, the Captain was not able to get beyond the point 
of very moderate success. He had worked hard, had 
improved the farm as best he could with scanty means, 
and the results had disappointed him. More than that, 
during the last year he was attacked by fever and ague, 
which unfitted him for the hard work that the life of a 
farmer demanded, and, in the autumn of 1858, he sold 
his personal property for what it would bring under the 
hammer, and leased the farm. Captain Grant fancied 
that if he had more capital at the time, his farm would 
have paid fairly well, but it was evident, however, that 
the business of farming had not sot its seal upon him. 



AN UNSUCCESSFUL FARMER 57 

General Horace Porter, who was Presideut Grant's 
private secretary, gives an incident which shows how 
little his thoughts were fixed on those touching events 
of his life which have made snch a deep impression on 
others. While President he made a visit to St. Louis, 
and wishing to go to his old farm, a horse and buggy 
were ordered, and the drive taken. "He stopped on 
the high ground overlooking the city, and stood for a 
time by the side of the little log house which he had 
built partly with his own hands in the days of his early 
struggles. When being asked whether the events of the 
last fifteen years of his life did not seem to him like a 
tale of the Arabian ^N^ights, especially in coming from 
the White House to visit the little farm-house of early 
days, he simply replied : 'Well, I never thought of it in 
that light.' " 

The marvellous contrasts in his life, which amazed 
the world, seemed never to have surprised him; and he 
so much disliked to speak of matters so personal to him- 
self that he seldom referred to them.* 



* There is peculiar interest in the two log cabins in which Grant 
had lived. The one in which he was born was purchased by Henry T. 
Chrittendon, of Columbus, Ohio, in 1888. It was removed by boat 
and rail from where it had stood for seventy years, and placed on 
the grounds of the State Board of Agriculture at Columbus. But as 
time and the elements had affected it, a building was erected about it 
which gives it complete protection. The cabin which Grant built at 
"Hardscrabble" was bought by a real estate dealer in 1893. In 1904 
it was removed to the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 
and rebuilt from the original material near the Palace of Fine Arts. 
Since then an effort has been made to transform it into a museum of 
war relics, the undertaking being in charge of the "Grant Cabin 
association," 




XI. 

HE FAILS TO SELL REAL ESTATE. 

AVING become convinced that he could not 
support his family ])roperly by farming the 
stmnpy land at "Hardscrabble," Captain 
Grant went to St. Louis in the winter of 
1858, and formed a partnership with Harry Boggs, a 
cousin of Mrs. Grant, who was conducting a real estate 
agency. Leaving the family on the farm till spring- 
time, he occuiDied a small room in the Boggs house which 
was lacking in almost every convenience that would 
add to his personal comfort. But he started out in his 
new life with strong hope that better days would soon 
come. ISTot a word of complaint fell from his lips, and 
joining the busy throng of the street, he quietly put 
forth his best powers to meet, in a philosophical way, 
the hard conditions which beset him. 

When spring came Mrs. Grant and the children 
moved into the city, but not many months passed before 



HE FAILS TO SELL REAL ESTATE 59 

the Captain met with grievous disappointments. Busi- 
ness did not increase. Boggs was the active man, expe- 
rienced in the ways and means by which houses and lots 
w^ere bought and sold, but the junior partner w^as inex- 
perienced, and was not a "hustler" on the street. In 
driving a bargain in houses and lots the quartermaster 
of old Fourth Infantry was a dead failure. He could 
not adaj>t himself to the cold business methods of the 
street. 

Mr. William Rumbold, architect for the steel dome 
which crowns the old courthouse in St. Louis, once told 
me a pathetic incident relating to Captain Grant's ex- 
perience in the real estate business. A Mr. White, with 
whom he was acquainted, had consulted the Captain 
concerning the purchase of a house in the city. The 
terms were practically agreed upon, and Mr. White 
made a verbal promise to take the property, the transfer 
to be made in a few days. Of course the Captain was 
elated. But one morning in the spring of 1859, when 
Mr. White and Mr. Rumbold Avere on Fourth street, 
they chanced to meet the Captain, and after a cordial 
handshaking, Mr. White said: "By the way. Captain, 
I think I shall not be able to take the house for the pres- 
ent, and I intended to see you about it." When they 
first clasped hands the Captain's face brightened as if 
lit by a sunbeam, but when the last words of Mr. White 
fell upon his oars, his countenance was transformed to 
severe sadness. He could hardly utter a word, so in- 
tense was his disappointment. Almost immediately. 



60 ORAXT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

witli his body slightly bent — natural to him — his mind 
terribly burdened, and his Mdiole being dejiicting want 
and depression, he slowly and silently walked away. 

As the months passed, the Captain's share of the 
business dropped lower and lower, and finally the part- 
nershijD with Boggs was dissolved. This made his con- 
dition more uncertain and pitiable than ever. He paced 
the streets of St. Louis, seeking any honorable employ- 
ment for which he was qualified, but no one was found 
to lend him a helping hand. The world appeared to 
have turned against him. 

There were only four instances in Grant's career 
when he lost control of his will-power — when his cour- 
age was gone. Faith in himself seemed to be weakest 
during his last days at Fort Humboldt. The second 
time was at St. Louis, when it is thought that he 
"touched the lowest depth of dejection" since he re- 
signed from the army. It has been said that "no man is 
a failure until he is dead or loses his courage — which 
amounts to the same thing." But this impressive 
phrase will not apply in Grant's case. He lived in 
spite of abandoned hope; and lived to learn to master 
his moods before he could master men. 

It is no wonder that he failed in St. Louis. He was 
not a "compeller of men." Ho was absolutely devoid 
of the spirit of commercialism. Senator Hanna once 
said of McKinley: "He could guide the destiny of the 
IN'ation, . . . preserve the peace of all the peoples 



HE FAILH TO SELL REAL ESTATE 61 

of the earth ; but could not profitably sell a comer lot," 
It Avas so Avith Grant. The business of speculating or 
buying and selling for gain was a mystery to him. His 
manner was too quiet and unassuming to make a suc- 
cessful barterer. 

When Grant had exhausted his resources in the vain 
effort to engage in some business undertaking, he 
learned that a county engineer for St. Louis county was 
to be appointed, at a salary of $1,900, and for this po- 
sition he made a personal application in the following 
form : 

"St. Louis, August 15, 18.59. 

"Hon. County Commissioners, St. Louis County, Mo. 

"Gentlemen: — I beg leave to submit myself as an applicant 
for the office of County Engineer, should the office be rendered 
vacant, and at the same time to submit the names of a few citi- 
zens who have been kind enough to recommend me for the office. 
I have made no effort to get a large number of names, nor the 
names of persons with whom I am not personally acquainted. I 
enclose herewith, also, a statement from Prof. J. J. Reynolds, wlio 
was a classmate of mine at West Point, as to qualifications. 
Should your honorable body see proper to give me the appoint- 
ment, I pledge myself to give the office my entire attention, and 
shall hope to give general satisfaction. 

"Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

"U. S. Grant." 

But his opponent secured the ofEce. In the 
Memoirs is this laconic sentence: "My opponent had 
the advantage over me (he was a citizen only by adop- 
tion) and caj-ried off the prize." Others, however, 
charged his defeat to politics; the Captain being a 



62 ORAM', THE MAN OF MYHTEBY 

Democrat, while three of the live commissioners were 
Republicans.* 

In after years Grant said tliat his failure to secure 
the appointment of county engineer brought on the 
darkest hour he ever knew. He was driven to his wits 
to know how to live or where to live.f 



* The sequel of Captain Grant's application for the position of 
county engineer is curious enough. The document is carefully pre- 
served among the county records, and besides bearing a note of re- 
jection, the following was afterwards added : 

"Application of U. S. Grant to be appointed to County Engineer, 
Rejected. 

"Attest, S. W. Eager, Jr., 

"Sec. Board of iSt. Louis Co., Commissioners." 
"Note — The within-named Captain U. S. Grant is now a Major- 
General in the United States Army, and is in command of the Depart- 
ment of the Tennessee. September, 18G2." 

"Nota Bene. — Captain U. S. Grant is now Lieutenaut-General of 
the United States, and the highest officer in the service. May 25th, 
1864." 

"The hero of Vicksburg." 
"Captured Richmond, April, 1865." 
"Captured the whole rebel army, 1865." 
"General United States Army, 1860." 

t At the time of Captain Grant's application for the position of 
county engineer, Henry T. Blow was an active Republican politician, 
and opposed the appointment. When Grant was President a list of 
names was presented to him for the Brazil mission. Grant ran down 
the list until he came to that of Mr. Blow, and pausing he said. "I 
know that man. He is the right man for such a place. He pre- 
vented me once from getting the position of engineer in St. Louis. 
I presume he will never know, or can know, the agony he caused me 
to experience at that time." 




XII. 

THE CAPTAIN IN THE LEATHER TRADE. 

AVING become convinced that he could not 
provide a living in St. Louis for his family, 
Captain Grant decided to take counsel of 
his father, who lived in Covington, Ken- 
tuckv, where his tannery was located. On that visit an 
agreement was reached whereby he was to go to Galena 
and take a clerkship in the leather store which was in 
part owned by Mr, Grant. The particulars relating to 
this matter are given in a letter from Mr. Grant to Gen- 
eral James Grant Wilson, dated March 20, 1869 : 

"After Ulysses' farming and real estate experiments in St. 
Louis failed to be self-supporting, he came to me at this place 
for advice and assistance. I referred him to Simpson, my next 
oldest son, who had charge of my Galena business, and who was 
staying with me on account of ill-health. Simpson sent him to 
the Galena store to stay until something else might turn up in 
his favor, and told him he must confine his wants within $800 
a year. That if that would not support him he must draw what 
it lacked from the rent of his house and the hire of his negroes 



04 GRAyr. THE J/.l.V OF MY8TERY 

in St. Louis. He went to Galena in April, 1860, one year before 
the capture of Sumter; then he left. That amount would have 
supported his family then, but he owed debts at St. Louis, and he 
did draw $1,500 in the year, but he paid back the balance after 
he went into the army." 

My acquaintance with Grant began in Galena early 
in the winter of 1856. lie was then on a visit to his 
brothers, Simpson and Orvil, who had charge of their 
father's interest in the leather store. Worn out by hard 
work in the lead mines and on the farm in southern 
Wisconsin, I had sought lighter employment in the har- 
ness shop of W. W. Venable, which adjoined the leather 
store. 

I had been in the shop but a short time when one 
morning the foreman told me to go to Grant's and get 
some "strap oil." On entering the store, the only per- 
son I saw was a man wearing an armv overcoat of blue, 
smoking a pipe, reading a paper, his feet resting on a 
stove. When he saw me he stopped reading and asked 
me if I wanted the clerk. I answered that our foreman 
had sent me in for some "strap oil." Instantly he 
grasped the meaning of this, and in a quiet, kindly way, 
he replied: "You may tell your foreman that the firm 
has no ^strap oil' this morning." This was a great dis- 
appointment to the shop force, as they expected to see 
me returning with a clerk giving my back some heavy 
strokes with a leather strap. 

Captain Grant did not remain long in Galena that 
winter, as his visit was only to meet his brothers and 
to enjoy a short relief from the strain of farm labor at 



THE CAPTAIN IN THE LEATHER TRADE 65 

Gravois. Duriiig that brief stay — perhaps three weeks 
— I saw much of him after the incident I have related. 
As he had been kind enough to save me from being 
''hazed/' I felt free to speak to him whenever Ave met, 
and although I was only a "cub"— yet a full-grown man 
— he did not try to evade a conversation that was worth 
Avhile. His army overcoat, and his sympathetic face, 
though often bearing a serious expression, strongly ap- 
pealed to me. He had a remarkable memory, and after 
the Civil War he promptly recalled the incident of our 
first meeting. 

When Captain Grant moved to Galena with his wife 
and four children in April, 1800, he readily adapted 
himself to the demands of his new environment. For 
the first time since his retirement from the army he 
received a stated income, and although it was small, and 
the house in which he lived was of the humblest, no 
discontent marred the happiness of the family. Al- 
though Mrs. Grant was reared in most comfortable 
circumstances, and was not used to privation and disap- 
pointment, and when the Captain was buffeted at every 
turn in business affairs in patience she possessed her 
soul. She had large hope in liis ultimate success, and 
in time of reverses she "passed through the cloud" by 
the sustaining power of gracious womanhood, and it 
seemed that never once did she fail to hold to the belief 
tliat some day slie would see the victory of her faith. 

While Captain Grant's position in the store was 
that of a clerk, he frequently called on the firm's delin- 



00 GRA^T, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

quent customers in the euiiutry. An incident illustrat- 
ing his force of will in cii'cnmstances demanding de- 
termination and courage is worth relating. 

One of the debtors at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, 
had bought some goods on credit, and then disposed of 
them bj an alleged l)ill of sale. The Captain was in- 
structed to collect the bill or recover the goods bv process 
of law. On arriving in town he consulted with the 
Hon. Ormsby B. Thomas, the firm's attorney (after- 
wards my partner in business and a member of Con- 
gress). An investigation showed that the bill of sale 
was fraudulent, and a writ was given to tlie deputy 
sheriff, who, with the attorney and the Captain, pro- 
ceeded to the building in which the goods were stored. 
The pretended purchaser having heard that one of the 
Grants was in town, armed himself with a gun, hastened 
to the store, locked the door, and waited for the coming 
of the officer. When the deputy attempted to serve the 
papers a threat to shoot came from v/ithin. The deputy 
was confused and knew not how to secure service. The 
Captain watched the proceedings quietly for a short 
time and then said: '''Mr. Deputy, if you are afraid to 
force an entrance into the building, why don't you 
deputize some one who will do it for you ?" Instantly 
came the answer: "I deputize you!'' 

Captain Grant was fairly well preserved in those 
days and felt equal to the task. Stepping backward a 
few feet, he came up to the door with a rush, planting 
his right foot near the lock. A crash followed, the door 



THE CAPTAIN IN THE LEATHER TRADE fi7 

at once swimg ajar, the Captain entered and seized 
the man and his gun. The papers were served, and the 
Grants got possession of their goods. 

AVhile living in Galena, Captain Grant made but 
few acquaintances. He was content to live a quiet life, 
and those who chanced to knoAV him he doubtless im- 
pressed as being a disappointed man ; for the bitter dis- 
appointments which were written on the heart were fre- 
quently reflected in the face. But he was not a shift- 
less man by any means. An impelling sense of duty 
enabled him to perform his share of the store work in a 
modest, diligent way, and to all appearances he was 
content, and unconsciously waiting the coming of bettor 
days. 

In every condition of his life Grant was impres- 
sively sincere. He could not trifle with himself, and 
could not realize how trifling many men could be. Ho 
was a very reverent man, even in his darkest days, and 
his theory of religion and of religious living was pe- 
culiarly his own. 

During the year he lived in Galena the Rev. John 
H. Vincent (now bishop) was pastor of Bench Street 
Methodist church, of which Mrs. Grant was a devout 
member. Although the Captain was a regular attend- 
ant upon Sunday services, and was a lover of good ser- 
mons, he never became a communicant of the church. 
In writing of those times the Bishop emphasizes what 
Grant's daily life clearly revealed : that lie had little of 
what we call sentiment in his nature. He cared but 



m 0/,'A\T. THE 1/4. V OF MYSTERY 

little for rites and ceremonies, and did not take com- 
munion while in Galena, and perliaps nowhere else." 

He had a dislike of music, whether rendered by a 
church choir or blown off by a brass band. He seemed 
to be totally indifferent to the sweetest strains the 
human voice could produce. f 

Those who became acquainted with Captain Grant 
in Galena were greatly attracted by his gentleness of 
demeanor, his amiable disposition, his purity of speech, 
and his strong manliness. He was living a very humble 
life and formed but few friendships, but those who came 
in close touch with the man found him the very soul 
of a true gentleman. There is a passage in which St. 
Paul the apostle says something about being lovers of 
good men, sober-minded, just, and temperate in all 



* The Bishop says that on a Sunday during Grant's presidency, 
and while at the Metropolitan Methodist church the Holy Communion 
was being administered, (irant leaned forward to Vice President Colfax, 
who sat immediately in front of him, and offered to go to the altar if 
lie would accompany him : but for some unknown reason the Vice 
I'resident declined. 

t Shortly after Grant became president he and his daughter Nellie, 
who was then entering her teens, were accompanied by a political 
friend in attending an opera performance. The three occupied a box, 
the President being comfortably seated in the baclcground. The star 
of the evening was the famous Parepa Rosa, and when she appeared 
on the stage amid a great outburst of applause, and began to send 
her charming voice to every part of the auditorium, the President 
I)aid no attention to the demonstration or to the singer, but con- 
tinued to hold a low conversation with his statesman friend. But 
Nellie became impatient, and finally whispered : "Papa, Parepa is 
singing." P.ut the President whispered back : "All right, Nellie, let 
her sing : she is not disturbing us." 



THE CAPTAIN IN THE LEATHER TRADE 69 

tilings. Captain Grant lived in harmony with the apos- 
tle's standard as sincerely and completely while a clerk 
in the leather store as in any period of his eventful life. 
In sincerity and true manliness he was unchanging and 
unchangeable. 






XIII. 

PROMPT RESPONSE TO A NATION'S CALL. 

HEN the shot was fired on Snniter, on April 
12th, 1861, two-thirds of Captain Grant's 
life had passed away. Up to this time liis 
credits on life's ledger were faithful service 
in the old army, a patriotic spirit, health, character, 
and love for his family. He was passing through what | 

seemed to be an aimless period of life, when the ISs^a- 
tion's call aroused the quiet man to action, l^othing 
less than an event like that of the firing on Sumter could 
liave stirred up the gift which was within him. 

Those who have read the Memoirs will probably re- 
member the statement that he was called to preside at 
a war meeting, and that after it had been organized, 
Elihu B. Washburne, member of Congress from the 
Galena district, entered the courtroom, and being called 
upon to speak, expressed "a little surprise that Galena 
could not furnish a presiding officer for such an occa- 



PROMPT RESPONSE TO A NATION'S GALL 71 

siou without taking a stranger." It is true that Mr. 
Washburne had not known Captain Grant personally, 
and the quotation requires an explanation. 

There were two war meetings held in Galena: the 
first on the 16th of April, the presiding officer of which 
was the mayor of the town, whose address was so lack- 
ing in patriotic enthusiasm that another meeting was 
called for the 18th, and at the suggestion of Mr. Wash- 
burne — who in the meantime had learned something of 
Captain Grant — he was called to the chair. The first 
to volunteer was Augustus L. Chetlain, a merchant, who 
rose to the rank of brevet major-general during the 
Civil War. Captain Grant did not enlist, but aided in 
the work of recruiting. When the company was full 
the captaincy was offered to Grant, but having been a 
captain in the regular army, he declined on the ground 
that he was entitled to a higher position in the volunteer 
service. Mr. Chetlain was elected captain, and Captain 
Grant superintended the work of uniforming the com- 
pany, and frequently assisted in drilling the men. 

The company departed for Springfield on the 25th 
of April, and Captain Grant, with "a small carpetbag 
in hand, and very plainly, if not poorly, clad in citizens' 
clothes," marched with the men to the railway station. 
It was his purpose to go with the company to Spring- 
field and tender his services to the state ; and to aid him 
in this design, Mr. Washburne gave him a letter of in- 
troduction to Governor Eichard Yates. On the after- 
noon of his departure, Mr. Vincent delivered a stirring 



72 GRAAT, THE MA^ OF MYSTERY 

farewell address to the company, and then called upon 
Mrs. Grant to express the hope that her husband might 
be spared from all harm and restored to his family. 1 
have stated in the preceding chapter that in all the years 
of the Captain's failures, disa])pointments, and finan- 
cial want, Mrs. Grant was a brave, patient, and cheerful 
woman, and her instant answer to the pastor was : 
"Dear me, I hope he will get to be a major general, or 
something big!" 

There were many politicians at the state capital 
seeking special positions in the volunteer service for 
either themselves or their friends. The impelling in- 
fluence among them was even more political than pa- 
triotic. Therefore, when Captain Grant presented the 
Washburne letter to the Governor, his reception was so 
cold as to cause him painful surprise and disappoint- 
ment. The natural Grant was not a striking personal- 
ity ; and his bearing was not that of a trained soldier. 
His enthusiasm for the Union was not of the fitful, spas- 
modic, flash-in-the-pan sort. But he had the ornament 
of a sincere, diffident, quiet spirit. He had much in 
reserve. A quaint old minister was once asked what 
he thought of the attainments of his two sons, who were 
both preachers. "Well," he said, "George has a better 
show in his window than John, but John has a larger 
stock in his warehouse." The Captain, before the gov- 
ernor and politicians at Springfield, was John of the 
anecdote. 

Grant, not having acquired the habit of talking 



PROMPT REHPOXSE TO A XATlOX'f^ CALL 73 

inucli about himself, made a poor impression in the 
presence of Governor Yates. One of the laws of his 
life was not to boast of his thrilling experiences in the 
old army. This was to his detriment at this particular 
time. But this was the natural man — one of the mys- 
teries of his character. 

The Governor did not seem to be influenced in the 
Captain's favor by Mr. Washburne's letter. He looked 
at it with apparent indifference, and said that he knew 
of nothing he could give him then, but referred him to 
the adjutant-general of the state. The Captain called 
on that official the following day, and w^as informed, in 
a cold sort of way, that he knew of no employment 
which could be given him unless it was some clerical 
work in the office at two dollars a day. 

Captain Grant's patience and courage were tested 
to the limit by this strange treatment. But he was a 
patriot, and for the time being, a common clerk. In a 
few days, however. Captain Chetlain observed that the 
Captain's spirits began to droop. He was mortified, as 
any soldier of his character and record would have been, 
in being set to do such work ; and one day he said to 
Chetlain : "I am going back to the store to-night. I am 
of no use here. You have boys in your company who 
can do this work." But he was urged to remain a few- 
days longer, w'hich he reluctantly decided to do. When 
the Twelfth Illinois Infantry was organized. Captain 
Chetlain endeavored to secure tlie colonelcy for Grant, 
but "a prominent and influential politician who aspired 



74 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

to the place strenuously opposed Grant, on the ground 
that an officer who had been compelled to leave the army 
on account of his habits was not a safe man to be in- 
trusted with the command of a regiment." ''T found it 
impossible," continues Chetlain, "to overcome this ob- 
jection, and Grant's name was dropped." 

Again Captain Grant was engulfed in disappoint- 
ment. His hope was almost buried in the grave of de- 
spair. He did not nurse morbid feelings — they were 
forced upon him by conditions he could not control ; 
and for the third time in his life he lost his tenacity of 
Avill. There was latent power enough in the man to 
turn the stream of history into a new channel, but for 
the time he could not overcome the machinations of 
self-asserting politicians. 

It was a happy deliverance from his immediate 
troubles that Captain Grant was persuaded by his 
friend Chetlain (who in the meantime had been ap- 
pointed lieutenant-colonel of the Twelfth Infantry) not 
to make a hasty return to Galena, for on the 4th of May 
he was appointed to take charge of Camp Yates, where 
several regiments were gathered. The camp was in a 
chaotic state, but Captain Grant, having been a success- 
ful quartermaster, soon placed it in an orderly condi- 
tion. 

On the Stli of May he was appointed mustering offi- 
cer — a slight promotion — and after organizing several 
regiments in various parts of the state, he went to St. 
Louis to consult Captain Nathaniel Lyon, with whom he 



PROMPT RESPONSE TO A NATION'S CALL 75 

was acquainted at West Point, and who was then com- 
mandant at the government arsenal. But his old army 
friend could find nothing for him, and, departing for 
Springfield, he called at Caseyville, where the Twelfth 
was stationed. Colonel Chetlain says: "The Captain 
was again depressed in spirits, and seemed to feel keenly 
his lack of success in obtaining some suitable appoint- 
ment in the volunteer service. During his visit he 
more than once alluded to the singular fact that an edu- 
cated military man who had seen service could not get 
a position in the volunteer army, when civilians, with- 
out military education or experience, could easily ob- 
tain them." 

When the Captain reached Springfield he was or- 
dered, on the 15th of May, to muster in the Twenty- 
first Illinois at Mattoon ; and there being nothing more 
for him to do, he returned to Galena. Seeing no imme- 
diate prospect of having his services accepted by the 
state, Captain Grant wrote a letter to the War Depart- 
ment at Washington, tendering his services to the 
country. The letter was dated at Galena, May 24th, 
1861, and after reciting, in a brief way, his military 
record, he stated that he felt competent to command a 
regiment if the President should see fit to intrust one 
to him. 

Captain Grant never received an answer to that let- 
ter. It had been misplaced in the war office, and was 
not found until many months afterwards. He con- 
fesses that he had some hesitation in applying for a 



76 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

colonelcy, as he really doubted whether he Avould be 
equal to the demands of the position, but his courage to 
make the application was strengthened when he saw the 
kind of material out of which colonels were being rap- 
idly made in Illinois and Indiana. 

When no word came from Washington, one might 
well believe that Captain Grant had almost lost faith in 
Longfellow's line : 

"All things come round to him who will but wait." 

He had waited till his heart grew heavy ; but 
finally he concluded to try again. He had known 
General McClellan at West Point and in Mexico, 
and as McClellan had been recently appointed major- 
general, with headquarters at Cincinnati, the Captain 
decided to call upon him, hoping that he would offer 
him a staff appointment. He called at headquarters on 
two successive days, and when he asked for the General, 
the answer was, "He has just gone out." Each day the 
same story, "Just gone out." The Captain could no 
longer endure the wearisomeness of delay, and retired 
from the scene. 

It is but fair to give McClellan's version of this in- 
cident, found in My Own Story, in which he says : "I 
think it was during my absence on a trip to Indianapolis 
that Grant came to Cincinnati to ask me, as an old 
acquaintance, to give him employment, or a place on my 
staff. Marcy, or Seth Williams, saw him and told him 
that if he would await my return, doubtless I would do 
something for him ; but before I got back he telegraphed 



PROMPT RESPONSE TO A NATION'S CALL 77 

that he could have a regiment in Illinois, and at once 
returned thither, so I did not see him. This was his 
good luck ; for had I been there I would have no doubt 
given him a place on mj staff, and he would probably 
have remained with me and shared my fate." 

It was near the middle of June, 1861, when 
common sense at the executive office at Springfield got 
a chance to reach its own conclusion. The Governor 
appointed Captain Grant colonel of the Twenty-first 
Illinois — a regiment made up of good material, but 
which had become demoralized while under command 
of an incompetent colonel at Springfield. Originally it 
was a thirty-day regiment, but with the appointment of 
Grant as colonel it became a part of the three-year 
forces. 

When Grant went to Springfield to take command 
of the regiment, he found it in a state of insubordina- 
tion ; and General John E. Smith of Galena tells of 
Grant's first visit to his command: 

"I went with him to camp, and shall never forget the scene 
when his men first saw him. Grant was dressed in citizen's 
clothes, an old coat worn out at the elbows, and a badly damaged 
hat. His men, though ragged and barefooted themselves, had 
formed a high estimate of what a colonel should be, and when 
Grant walked in among them they began making fun of him. 
They cried in derision, 'What a colonel!' and made all sorts of 
fun of him. And one of them, to show off to the others, got 
behind his back and commenced sparring at him, and while he 
was doing this another gave him such a push that he hit Grant 
between the shoulders." 

But this rebellious spirit did not continue long 



78 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

after Grant took command. He was not a severe dis- 
ciplinarian, but judiciously strict, and when the regi- 
ment got to know and understand the Colonel, it was 
classed among the best sent to the front from Illinois. 

General Chetlain says that Mr. E. A. Collins of 
Galena, formerly the junior member of the firm of 
Jesse R. Grant & Co., hearing that the Colonel was in 
much need of money, quietly sent him four hundred 
dollars, and with this amount Colonel Grant equipped 
himself in a manner befitting the commander of a regi- 
ment. 

After years of hard weather, the clouds are break- 
ing. The frowns of Fortune are on the wane. The 
door of opportunity is ajar. A forward movement is 
begun, and not a step backward is ever again to be 
taken. The lesson of terrible experience is deeply 
burned in the soul. The silent, mysterious man has 
mastered fate. He nerves himself for the vigorous 
years, the mighty responsibilities, and the great achieve- 
ments which are to follow. 



XIV. 




MARCHING TO THE FRONT. 

OLONEL GRANT was now in the saddle. 
For the first time in his military career he 
was given an opportunity to lead a force 
into action. His regiment became thor- 
oughly drilled. The men stood by him and for him, 
and were ready for the field. 

On the 3d of Jul}^, 1861, Colonel Grant was ordered 
to take his regiment to Quincy, Illinois, one hundred 
miles west from Springfield. In three weeks after he 
was commissioned Colonel we have an illustration of the 
real Grant in wartime. The railway facilities between 
the two cities were deficient, but instead of grimibling 
about the deficiency in transportation, he turned it to 
good account. He decided to march his men to the 
banks of the Mississippi and hire wagons to carry tents 
and rations. Of course no colonel who went in the 
war for glory would ever think of doing such a thing 



80 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

as that. But Colonel Grant was wise, as making the 
one hundred miles or more on foot would give the regi- 
ment a valuable lesson in the business of marching. 

The march was begun on the 3d of July and an 
easy distance was made each day. But when the Illinois 
river was reached, Colonel Grant was ordered to take 
cars for Quincy, and proceed with all possible haste to 
Palmyra, Missouri, where an Illinois regiment was 
thought to be surrounded by Confederates ; but before 
Palmyra could be reached all danger had passed, and 
the Colonel thought that both sides got frightened and 
ran away." A few days later Colonel Grant was or- 
dered to Florida, a little town held by Colonel Thomas 
Harris with a regiment of Confederates. When the 
Colonel got in view of the enemy's camp, and realized 
what was expected of him, he says that his heart kept 
getting higher and higher until it felt as though it was 
in his throat. This was the first time in his military 
career that he was compelled to fight his own battle. 
He was oppressed by the responsibility: "I would have 
given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but 
I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what 
to do ; I kept right on. . . My heart then resumed 
its place. It occurred to me that Colonel Harris had 
been as mucli afraid of me as I was of him. 
From that event to the close of the war I never experi- 
enced trepidation, though I was more or less anxious. 
I never forgot that the enemy had as much reason to 
fear my forces as I had his.'' 



iUARCHIXG TO THE FROST 81 

Shortly after this incident, Colonel Grant was or- 
dered by General Pope — commanding the District of 
Missouri — to move his regiment to Mexico, in that 
state, and to assume command of the several regimenta 
in that immediate locality. He had been there but a 
few weeks when he learned that he had been appointed 
Brigadier-General, with six other colonels from Illinois. 
General Grant was given command of the district em- 
bracing southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois ; 
and on the 4th of September, 1861, he established his 
headquarters at Cairo, the post then being commanded 
by Colonel Richard Oglesby, later Governor of Illinois 
and United States Senator. 

General Grant could no more throw aside his mod- 
esty than he could lose his temper. When he reached 
Cairo he was in citizen's dress, his brigadier's uniform 
not having been received. He had never met Colonel 
Oglesby, and when he went to his headquarters he found 
the rooms full of people "making complaints or asking 
favors." When General Grant introduced himself, in 
his habitually quiet voice, it seems that the Colonel did 
not understand the name clearly, and, supposing him 
to be a stranger Avho wanted some favor, he paid little 
attention to him. As Colonel Oglesby was a dignitied 
looking man, and uniformed according to his rank, there 
was a striking difference in the appearance of the two 
men. But Grant was not abashed by this dissimilarity. 
He took a place at a table, reached for a piece of paper 
on which he wrote an order assuming command of that 



82 GRAM, THE MAN OF MYtiTERY 

district, aud assigning Colonel Oglesby to the post of 
Bird's Point. When this order was handed to him, 
Grant says : "He put on an expression of surprise that 
looked as if he would like to have someone identify me." 
It is marvellous how rapidly General Grant made 
history from this time on. 

Here is an illustration : General Grant had been in 
Cairo but one day when he learned from one of General 
Fremont's scouts that a force of Confederates had 
started from Columbus — twenty miles below on the 
Mississippi — for the purpose of occupying Paducah, 
then a town of 8,000, at the confluence of the Ohio and 
Tennessee rivers. The holding of the town by the Con- 
federates would have been a severe blow to the cause of 
the Union in Kentucky. Paducah was the key of the 
West. General Grant, with his keen military eye, saw 
this clearly. Also, he was aware of the fact that if 
Union troops were to hold the city, action must be 
prompt. Twice he telegraphed the situation of affairs 
to General Fremont at St. Louis, but received no answer. 
He then determined to assume the responsibility of mov- 
ing on Paducah, forty-five miles from Cairo. Troops 
were embarked on transports with all possible liastc, 
and under the cover of night steamed up the river and 
reached their destination about daylight. Had General 
Grant spent another half day in dallying with Fremont, 
Paducah would have been held and fortified by the Con- 
federates, for 4,000 troops were within a few hours' 
march of the town. 




<;UAXT AS BltKiADlKU GKXKRAL. 
IN THE At'TlMN OP 18(51. 

I Copied from McClure's Mar/azine, by permission. J 



MARCHING TO THE FRONT 83 

Of course there was cousternation among the people 
when General Grant's army of eighteen hundred men, 
with the necessary cannon, took possession of the town. 
They were fearful of trouble. But the General soon 
calmed their fears. With a military head and a mili- 
tary hand he everywhere evoked order out of chaos. 
He issued a printed proclamation to the citizens, assur- 
ing them "of our peaceful intention, that we had come 
among them to protect them against the enemies of our 
country, and all who chose could continue their usual 
avocations with the assurance of the protection of the 
government." 

A campaign for tlie Union began early in Kentucky. 
The most persuasive orators and the ablest pens were 
employed to save the state to the Union. President 
Lincoln took a deep interest in the matter, l^'rom the 
very depth of his soul there came a plea that Kentucky 
must not be precipitated into secession. Earnestly and 
tenderly he clung to the state that gave him birth. And 
when General Grant's proclamation was published, the 
President said: "The modesty and brevity of that ad- 
dress show that the officer issuing it understands the sit- 
uation, and is the proper man to command there at this 
time." It was not the proclamation of a warrior, but 
the sympathetic appeal of a friend, a patriot, and a 
statesman. James G. Blaine says that the taking of 
Paducah by General Grant was the first important step 
in the military career "which fills the most brilliant 
pages in the military annals of our country." 



84 



GRANT, THE MAN OF MYtiTERY 



It was this perfect self-reliance, always manifested 
in General Grant, which, perhaps, gave him a touch of 
the feeling that he was the man born for the occasion ; 
and hence, without orders from any superior, he made 
a movement in the nick of time to outwit the Confed- 
erates in their purpose to hold Paducah. A delay of 
only a few hours would have lost that important post 
to the Union. 




XV. 

GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE. 

ENEKAL GRAXT made no delay in prop- 
erly reinforcing Padncah. The command 
of the post was given to General Charles 
F. Smith, who held the positions of adju- 
tant and commandant at West Point during Grant's 
term as a cadet. 

On his return to Cairo, General Grant found a 
dispatch from the department headquarters which gave 
him permission to take Paducah "if he felt strong- 
enough." One of the interesting features of his military 
career was that he rarely ever mismeasured his strength. 
Before the department commander at St. Louis could 
decide what to do about Paducah, General Grant had 
seen his opportunity, and moved immediately upon the 
town, and thereby made the Union forces master of the 
Ohio and Tennessee rivers. It was the original aim 
of Kentucky to preserve a position of neutrality in the 



86 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

impending contest; but the Confederates were the first 
to violate it. And on the heel of the dispatch giving 
General Grant permission to take Padncah if he felt 
strong enough, came another from the same source 
reprimanding him for so hastily placing the town under 
Federal authority ! Evidently, on second thought, Fre- 
mont concluded that General Grant had violated the 
neutrality agreement, and then began to blow hot and 
cold in regard to the affair. 

For two months after the timely occupation of Pa- 
dncah, little was done in General Grant's department. 
Shortly after giving that important post the protection 
of Union forces, he asked permission to drive the Con- 
federates out of Columbus and securely fortify that 
commanding position, but consent was refused, and 
this piece of stupidity on the part of General Fremont 
gave the enemy an opportunity to fortify the town so 
as to make it difficult of capture sliould it have been 
deemed advisable later on to move against it. 

It is not essential to enter into all the details which 
led up to General Grant's first battle. General Fre- 
mont was in Missouri, striving to take care of General 
Sterling Price, who had an army of considerable size 
for that period of the war. He was still looking to 
Columbus for reinforcements. To prevent forces from 
being sent from Columbus to Missouri, General Grant 
ordered General Smith to take such troops as he could 
spare from Paducah, and make a sufficient demonstra- 
tion in the rear of the "Gibraltar of the West," to alarm 



GRANT'S FIRST BATTLE 87 

the enemj. Grant decided to supplement this move- 
ment by moving by boat down the river three thousand 
one hundred men, embracing five regiments of in- 
fantry, two squadrons of cavalry, and two pieces of 
artillery. It was his purpose to make only a feint 
against Columbus, for he was too good a soldier to begin 
a fight which he knew would certainly end in his defeat. 
This movement was made on Wednesday evening, 
l^ovember, 6th, 1861, and about two o'clock Thursday 
morning Grant learned that Confederate troops were 
crossing the river from Columbus, doubtless to inter- 
cept Colonel Oglesby, who had gone into Missouri after 
that roaming bandit, Jeff. Thompson. General Grant 
knew of a Confederate camp at Belmont, and wishing 
to make havoc of it, he quickly decided to move upon it 
and immediately return to Cairo. The camp was lo- 
cated on low ground, and in consequence of much timber 
and marshy land, difficulty would attend its capture. 
He dropped down the river to Hunter's Point, three 
miles above Belmont, disembarked, and at eight o'clock 
on the morning of November 7th a slow and cautious 
march for the camp was begun. He soon met Confed- 
erate troops from Belmont, and the battle was on. Gen- 
eral Grant was the only man in the command who had 
ever been imder fire. Early in the engagement his 
horse was shot from under him, but he immediately got 
another and led the advance. His men behaved well 
until the camp was captured, when, supposing their 
victory was complete, demoralization seized them. 



88 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

Grant says: "The moment the camp was reached our 
men laid down their arms and began rnmmaging the 
tents to pick up trophies. Some of the higher officers 
were little better than the privates. They galloped 
about from one cluster of men to another and at every 
halt delivered a short eulogy upon the Union cause and 
the achievements of the command." 

After fighting four hours, during which reinforce- 
ments were being sent to the Confederates from Colum- 
bus, there was nothing further for Grant to do than to 
burn the camp and retreat to the boats. Some of the 
officers thought they were completely surrounded by the 
enemy, and that the next thing to do was to surrender. 
But the General always had the right word for the right 
time; and instantly he made the inspiring announce- 
ment: "We have cut our way in, and can cut our way 
out!" The officers and men came to their senses, and 
with some degree of order a retreat to the transports 
was made. Grant was in the rear — the only man in the 
command between the Confederates and the transports. 
He had been looking after the welfare of the weak and 
the wounded. It was about this time in the day that 
the wearing of the ordinary blue army overcoat used 
by the private soldiers saved his life. General Polk, 
of Louisiana, who had left a bishopric to command Con- 
federate troops, said to his sharpshooters: "There's 
a Yankee, if you want to try your aim." But his men 
were too busy firing at the crowded transports, and 
"deemed the solitarv soldier unworthy of notice." 



Oi^AA 7".S' FlliHT BATTLE 89 

When General Grant reached the bank of the river 
where the transports were lying, he found that the plank 
of his steamer had been pulled in, the captain supposing 
that all were aboard. Being observed, the engineer was 
ordered not to start his engines. The bank was steep 
and no pathway led to the boat. But this gave the 
General no concern, and as naturally as if riding on a 
road, he started his horse over the bank. With his 
hind feet well under him, the animal slid down to the 
water's edge, and then trotted, on a single plank, twelve 
or fifteen feet to the boat, the rider keeping the saddle 
with perfect composure. 

As a result of the dash upon Belmont, many teuts, 
with other camp equipage, were burned, one hundred 
and seventy-five prisoners and two cannons were cap- 
tured, four cannons were spiked, the Confederate ex- 
pedition was broken up, and Colonel Oglesby's com- 
mand was saved. More than that: the experience pre- 
pared the men for the next battle and also demon- 
strated General Grant's ability to command ; and in a 
strategic sense, military critics commented favorably 
on the result. 




XVI. 
THE COUNTRY IS ELECTRIFIED. 

WO days after the battle of Belmout, Major 
General Halleck superseded Fremont as 
commander of the department, which in- 
cluded Missouri, Arkansas, and West Ken- 
tucky to the Cumberland. General Grant's jurisdiction 
was so enlarged as to embrace the district of Cairo and 
the territory containing the mouths of the Tennessee 
and Cumberland rivers. 

Up to the beginning of 1862, little had been done 
anywhere by the Union forces. The three generals who 
had the most important commands were McClellan in 
the East, Buell in the department of the Ohio, with 
headquarters at Louisville, and Halleck in Missouri. 
From the beginning of November, 1861, to the close of 
January, 1862, the Confederates were active in moving- 
troops into Kentucky and Northwestern Tennessee, and 
fortifying some important points, while nothing was be- 



THE COUNTRY IS ELECTRIFIED 91 

ing done by our commanders to prevent the insurgents 
from having their own way. "Just as Lincoln had to 
prick McClellan in Virginia, he had to prick Buell in 
Kentucky; and just as McClellan failed to respond in 
Virginia, Buell also failed in Kentucky." And as to 
Halleck, he was comfortably quartered in St. Louis and 
was occupied chiefly in holding back active operations. 

The only ofiicer having any considerable command, 
who grew restless under this stagnant condition of 
affairs, was General Grant. He was anxious to move 
against the enemy. His clear military eye saw the 
points which must be attacked. Fort Henry was on the 
Tennessee, and eleven miles eastward lay Fort Donelson 
on the west bank of the Cimaberland. These Confed- 
erate strongholds "presented a kind of temptation which 
General Grant was less able to resist than were most of 
the Union generals at that time." He was always on 
the watchtower for a chance to get at the enemy. 

Halleck did not clearly understand the importance 
of freeing the rivers of these forts, for early in January, 
1862, General Grant begged permission to go to St. 
Louis and lay a plan of campaign before the command- 
ing general. The permission was granted, but only in 
a half-hearted way, and when General Grant appeared 
at headquarters he was received with such cold indiffer- 
ence that before he could make his plan clear to Halleck, 
he was cut short and turned away. With all of General 
Grant's equipoise in the most harassing condition in 



92 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

war, this rebuff staggered him, and he i-ctiiviied to 
Cairo much crestfallen. 

Although he was sorely disappointed in the kind of 
reception Halleck gave him, General Grant did not sur- 
render his hoj^e of an early movement up the Tennessee 
and the Cumberland rivers. He took counsel of his 
courage, and determined to try again. He consulted 
Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote, who had a flotilla at 
Cairo. He cheerfully indorsed the General's plan, and 
as the proposed campaign was devoid of guesswork, Gen- 
eral Grant telegraphed Halleck on the 28th of January: 
"If permitted I will take Fort Henry on the Tennes- 
see." On the 29th, the persistent brigadier general wrote 
full particulars concerning the movement to the af- 
fluent, scholarly, but doubting commander of the 
Missouri. The urgency with which the General pleaded 
his cause finally brought from the timid Halleck per- 
mission to move up the Tennessee. 

The expedition was started on the 2nd of February. 
The land forces consisted of 17,000 men who were 
moved on transports ; and in addition to this force were 
seven gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Foote. On 
approaching Fort Henry it became evident that the 
troops would not be needed in the attack. The flotilla 
began blowing shot into the fort on the forenoon of 
Thursday the Gth, and although the enemy had seven- 
teen heavy guns, the work done by Foote was so effective 
that in one hour and twenty minutes. General IJoyd 
Tilghman raised the white flag. The camp and garrison 



THE COUNTRY 18 ELECTRIFIED 93 

iiimibered 2,800, Init the General, foreseeing' that the 
fort was in danger of falling, ordered his men to retreat 
to Donelson. 

The fall of Fort Henry diffnsed general joy in the 
North, and stimulated the openly expressed hope for 
more of such victories. With General Grant in com- 
mand of the invading army, the sign of the time por- 
tended important and gratifying news. Therefore, when 
Henry fell he telegraphed Halleck that he would take J 
Fort Donelson on Saturday, the Sth. He had studied | 
carefully the topography of the country. Furthermore, ^ 
he knew the men in command of the fort — Floyd, 
Pillow, and Buckner — and this gave him confidence. 

But suddenly the bottom seemed to have fallen out 
of the roads. The rain and snow were so prolonged 
that the supply trains and artillery could not be moved 
as early as General Grant had hoped. Almost any 
other general would have despaired of moving an army 
at all in such a country and in such a season. But if 
General Grant had been told that it was impossible to 
make an early move on Donelson he would have made 
a reply something like that of Pompey the Great, who 
when told that his fleet could not sail, replied : "It is 
necessary to sail ; not necessary to live." It was neces- 
sary for General Grant's army to take Fort Donelson; 
"not necessary to live." In this movement against Don- 
elson, General Grant acted without express orders from 
llalleck. It was a plan wholly conceived by himself; 



94 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

and therefore lie held himself responsible for the results 
of the campaign. 

On the 12th of February General Grant was able to 
start his army of 15,000 men for Donelson. At the 
beginning of the movement he had with him General 
Charles F. Smith and General John A. McClernand 
and two days later General Lew Wallace joined him 
with 2,500 men. A portion of Foote's fleet which had 
been on the Tennessee was taken up the Cumberland to 
co-operate with the land forces at Donelson. 

The fort was fairly well invested in twenty-four 
hours, "when 15,000 Federal troops, without intrench- 
ment, confronted an intrenched army of 21,000." For 
two days there were several sharp attacks by both sides ; 
but "the sun went down on the night of the 14th 
of February, 1862, leaving the army before Fort Donel- 
son anything but comforted over the prospects." On 
that day Foote endeavored to repeat on the Cumberland 
the victory he had won on the Tennessee ; but the gar- 
rison had the advantage, and in less than two hours 
every boat in the flotilla was disabled and the flag 
officer severely wounded. 

The weather was bitterly cold, the troops were with- 
out tents, and many were destitute of blankets and over- 
coats. But the dauntless courage and the confidence of 
the commander were the hope of the army. On Saturday 
morning, the 15th, he was supplied with an abundance 
of ammunition, and was reinforced with 10,000 men. 
At the break of day on Saturday, Foote sent a messeu- 



THE COUNTRY Iti ELECTRIFIED 95 

ger to General Grant asking for a consultation. The 
General hastened to the flagship St. Louis, some five 
miles distant ; and after a brief meeting he started for 
the army and on his way was met by a staff officer who 
informed him that McClernand's division was in danger 
from a severe attack by the enemy. Galloping at full 
speed the General reached the lines about nine o'clock, 
and found that a portion of the army was becoming al- 
most paralyzed — not from the want of courage, but 
because their cartridge boxes were nearly empty. He 
lost no time in riding down the line and shouting to the 
men, "Fill your cartridge boxes, quick, the enemy is 
trying to escape, but don't let them get away!" This 
gave the troops renewed courage ; and Grant afterwards 
said : "I saw that either side was ready to give way if 
the other showed a bold front. I took the opportunity 
to order an advance along the whole line." The fight- 
ing was fierce from beginning to end. Every division 
commander did gallant work on that day. The brave, 
strong soldiers from the West fought with such courage 
and persistence under the inspiring leadership of their 
commander that the close of Saturday made the fall of 
Donelson certain. 

Two of the Confederate commanders — Pillow and 
Buckner — knew Grant, and were convinced that it 
would be a useless sacrifice of life to resist an attack on 
Sunday morning. So a council of war was held in the 
quiet of Saturday night, with the result that Floyd, in 
command, and Pillow, next in rank, slipped away with 



96 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYHTERY 

a small force, and the humiliation of surrendering was 
shifted on Buckner, General Grant's chum at West 
Point. 

At dawn of Sunday, February 16th, 1862, Buckner 
sent General Grant a note requesting the appointment 
of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation. 
But Grant was not playing war, and immediately he 
dispatched the folloAving note to his old comrade : 

"General 8. B. Buckner, Confederate Army. 

"Sir: Yours of this date proposing armistice and appoint- 
ment of commissioners to settle terras of capitulation is just re- 
ceived. No terms except an unconditional and immediate sur- 
render can be accepted. 

"I propose to move immediately upon your works. 

"U. S. Ghant, Brigadier General." 

General Buckner saw grim humor in the note, but 
knowing something of Grant, he gracefully accepted the 
situation. The capture was from 12,000 to 15,000 
prisoners, 20,000 stands of arms, 65 cannon, 3,000 
horses, and a large quantity of commissary stores. In 
no other department of the army had so decisive a 
victory been won. It was an inspiration to the country. 
The victories at Henry and Donelson raised the dark 
curtain which before had almost hidden hope for the 
future. 

Four days after the battle General Grant wrote: 
"For four successive nights, without shelter during the 
most inclement weather known in this latitude, the 
troops faced an enemy in large force in a position chosen 
by himself; and we secured the greatest number of 



THE COUNTRY IS ELECTRIFIED 97 

prisoners of war ever taken in a battle on this contin- 
ent." And Avithont vainglory he might have said that 
Donelson was as great and significant a victory as the 
capitnlation of Ulm to Napoleon, which has filled such 
a large space in history. 

There is a beautiful incident connected with the 
fall of the stronghold on the Cumberland which General 
Grant was too modest to include in the Memoirs. 
Many years after the event, General Buckner, speaking 
at a Grant birthday gathering, said : " " " " 
"Under these cicumstances I surrendered to General 
Grant. I had at a previous time befriended him, and 
it has been justly said that he never forgot an act of 
kindness. I met him on the boat (at the surrender), 
and he followed me when I went to my quarters. lie 
left the officers of his own army and followed me, with 
that modest manner peculiar to him, into the shadow, 
and there he tendered me his purse. It seems to me that 
in the modesty of his nature he was afraid the light 
would witness that act of generosity, and sought to hide 
it from the world." 

The story of the relationship between Grant and 
Halleck can be read only with regret. Although the 
news that Donelson had fallen caused abounding joy in 
the ]N^orth, and tlie government at Washington was filled 
with cheer and took on new hope, not a word of personal 
congratulation came from Halleck. Perhaps jealousy, 
so common in the army, got the better of his judgment. 
And McClellan, who, as yet had accomplished nothing, 



/ 



98 GRA^T, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

was also silent. But the most curious tliiug of all is 
that Halleck should ask for the command of the West in 
return for the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson. 
Perhaps he claimed this enlargement of his powers by 
the strange process of reasoning that "^'he permitted 
Grant to capture Fort Henry, and did not prevent him 
from capturing Fort Donelson,'' Halleck was then, as 
afterwards, seeking ''to reap where he had not sown.'' 
And more than this, his dispatches to Washington re- 
flected on Grant as a commander by indicating that he 
would have been defeated except for the able general- 
ship of Smith, therefore he asked that the latter be 
made the senior major general. But before Halleck 
could tell the President his wants, Stanton, on Monday 
morning following the surrender, proposed that General 
Grant be raised to the rank of major general, and im- 
mediately Lincoln made the nomination, and following 
this promotion came those of Smith, McClcrnand, and 
Wallace in recognition of their ability and bravery in 
battle. 

In three days after the caj)ture of Donelson Halleck 
telegi'aphed McClellan : "Give me the Western division 
of the army and I will split secession in twain in one 
month." And on the same day he wired the War De- 
partment: "If Buell will come down and help me we 
can end the war in the West in less than a month." 
But neither McClellan nor the War Department was 
influenced by these boastful dispatclies. So far as 
McClellan was concerned, Buell was his personal friend. 



TUE COUNTRY 18 ELECTRIFIED 99 

and he did not propose that he should play second to 
Halleck. And futhermore, McClellan was deeply con- 
cerned in the question as to how Halleck's sudden suc- 
cess in the Western department would affect his own 
standing and authority as Commander of all the armies. 

Commenting on this instinct of jealousy, Nicolay 
and Hay say: "While the three generals (McClellan, 
Halleck, and Buell) were discussing high strategy and 
grand campaigns by telegraph, and probably deliberat- 
ing with more anxiety the possibilities of personal fame, 
the simple soldering of Grant and Foote was solving 
some of the problems that confused scientific hy- 
potheses." 

While the siege of Donelson was going on. Brigadier 
General William T. Sherman was in command of the 
mouth of the Cumberland. He was Genea-al Grant's 
senior in rank, but he took a personal interest in the 
commander at Donelson, and wrote him notes of en- 
couragement, sent him reinforcements and supplies as 
rapidly as possible, and requested him to disregard 
rank and call upon him for such assistance as he might 
need. This was the beginning of a friendship as beau- 
tiful as that of Damon and Pythias, and a love of one 
for the other as warm and lasting as that sealed by the 
covenant of David and Jonathan. 

A few days after the victory at Donelson, a new and 
encouraging voice was raised in favor of General Grant. 
Roanoke Island, in North Carolina, was captured on 
the 7th day of February by General Burnside and Com- 



100 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

modore Goldsborough. This event, with the fall of 
Forts Henry and Donelson, aroused the patriotic en- 
thusiasm of Horace Greeley, and in the Tribune of the 
18th of the month he stated that to Edwin M. Stanton 
more than to any other individual, ^'these auspicious 
events are due." Mr. Stanton, not wishing to accept 
such adulation, wrote a letter to Mr. Greeley, in which 
he said : "We may well rejoice at the recent victories, 
for they teach that battles are to be won now, and by us, 
in the same and only way that they were ever won by 
any people since the days of Joshua, by boldly pursuing 
and striking the foe. What, under the blessing of 
Providence, I conceive to be the true organization of 
victory and military combination to end this war was 
declared in a few words by General Grant's message to 
General Buckner: 'I propose to move immediately 
upon your works.' " 

The story of General Grant's smoking habit cannot 
be separated from the history of Donelson. It was given 
to General Horace Porter by Grant many years after 
the victory : "I had been a light smoker previous to the 
attack on Donelson. . . . Admiral Foote having 
been wounded, at his request, I went to his flagship to 
confer with him. He gave me a cigar, which I smoked 
on my way back to my headquarters. On the road I 
was met by a staff officer, who announced that the enemy 
was making a vigorous attack. I galloped forward, and 
while riding among the troops, giving directions for 
repelling the assault, I carried the cigar in my hand. 



THE COUNTRY 18 ELECTRIFIED 101 

It had gone out, but it seems that I continued to hold 
the stump between my fingers throughout the battle 
(Saturday). In the accounts published in the papers 
I was represented as smoking a cigar in the midst of the 
conflict ; and many persons, thinking, no doubt, that 
tobacco was my chief solace, sent me boxes of the 
choicest brands from everywhere in the North. As 
many as ten thousand were soon received. I gave away 
all I could get rid of, but having such a quantity on 
hand I naturally smoked more than I would have done 
under ordinary circumstances, and I have continued the 
habit ever since." 

Among the noteworthy surprises associated with the 
winning of Donelson is that, despite all embarrassing 
conditions, raw troops, overflowing rivers, heavy rain, 
severe snow and cold. General Grant, so fresh from 
obscurity, should win the first decisive battle of the War 
of the Rebellion ; and that this plain man, as unassum- 
ing as a private soldier, should become the first stirring 
force in the field for the preservation of the Union. 



XVII. 
HALLECK SEEKS GRANT'S DEBASEMENT. 




KILE the soul of the North was inflamed 
with joy, and the President and Congress 
were greatly encouraged by the decisive 
victory at Donelson, General Grant was 
incurring the displeasure of Halleck. A few days after 
that battle General Grant desired to go to Nashville to 
learn the condition of the city, that territory being 
within the limits of his command. He therefore tele- 
graphed Halleck — who was still in St. Louis — that he 
would go to Nashville on the 28th of February, unless 
otherwise ordered. No response coming from him. 
General Grant proceeded to Nashville, and found that 
General Buell, with his army, had just reached the east 
side of the river, opposite the city, which was the first 
meeting of the two generals in the war. 

This meeting brought out a noteworthy incident 
which illustrates the difference in the capacity for dis- 



HALLECK SEEKS GRANT'S DEBASEMENT 103 

cernment of these commanders. General Grant had 
quickly studied the condition of affairs and told 
General Buell that the enemy was retreating as rapidly 
as possible on the west side. But General Buell in- 
sisted that fighting was going on only ten or twelve miles 
away, and wanted more troops with which to defend the 
city. General Grant maintained that the firing which 
Buell heard was only a fight with the rear-guard of the 
retreating enemy. General Buell was pessimistic, and 
with great emphasis said that he "knew" Nashville was 
in danger; but in less than twenty-four hours, as Gen- 
eral Grant had already asserted, "the enemy was trying 
to get away from Nashville, and not return to it." 

A deplorable course of events followed immediately 
after General Grant's successful campaign in Tennes- 
see. He was singularly unfortunate after leaving Cairo 
on the 2nd of February for the campaigns against Forts 
Henry and Donelson, in not promptly receiving dis- 
patches from the commander of the department. And 
on the other hand, there was a like delay in the trans- 
mission of dispatches from General Grant to Halleck. 
The telegraph line was a rickety affair at best, ran 
through a hostile country, and was usually out of re- 
pair ; but many of the dispatches sent to General Grant 
were lost by the treachery of an operator who proved to 
be a Confederate in disguise. 

The first two weeks in March were weeks of intense 
humiliation to General Grant. His great victories did 
not save him from the machinations of a secret foe. On 



104 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Sunday morning, March 2nd, 1862, General McClellan, 
desiring to give private orders for the movements of 
Ilalleck's and BuelPs commands, went to the military 
telegraph office at his headquarters as general of the 
army of the Potomac, in Washington, and caused com- 
munication to be cut off from all wires westward, except 
those leading to Halleck's headquarters in St. Louis, 
and Buell's in Louisville. Over this exclusive wire 
Halleck sent to McClellan this message : 

"I have had no communication from Grant all week. He 
left his command without my authority and went to Nashville. 
. . . Satisfied with his victory, he sits and enjoys it without 
regard to the future. I am worn out and tired with his neglect 
and ineflRciency. Greneral Smith is almost the only oflScer equal 
to the emergency." 

Despite this libellous charge made by Halleck, and 
the affirmation by McClellan that he himself was "al- 
ways" very friendly to Grant, he did not take time to 
investigate the charges, and on the following morning 
the same private wire carried back to Halleck this 
answer : 

"Generals must observe discipline as well as private soldiers. 
Do not hesitate to arrest him at once, if the good of the service 
requires it, and place General Smith in command." 

Still unrelenting in his purpose to damage General 
Grant's character, Halleck sent to McClellan, on the 4th 
of March, and over the same exclusive wire, this dis- 
patch : 

"A rumor has reached me that since the taking of Donelson, 
Grant has resumed his former bad habits. If so, it will account 
for his repeated neglect of my often repeated orders." 



HALLECK SEEKS GRANT'S DEBASEMENT 105 

On the 2nd of March General Grant was ordered to 
take his forces from Donelson to Fort Henry, and on 
his arrival there on the 4th he found the following 
dispatch from Halleck: 
"Maj.-Gen. U. 8. Grant, Fort Henry: 

"You will place Major General C. F. Smith in command of 
the expedition, and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you 
not obey my orders to report strength and positions of your 
command?" W. H. Halleck, Major General." 

The expedition referred to in this dispatch was the 
taking of a large part of General Grant's command up 
the Tennessee — an unconscious movement in bringing 
on the battle of Shiloh. Of course he was astounded by 
the injustice of such an order. He could not imagine 
who or what inspired it. Nothing in the history of war 
was more grotesque than those two office generals 
McClellan and Halleck — sitting in solemn judgment 
upon the hero of Donelson ; and very naturally General 
Grant was pricked to the heart to think that some secret 
foe was contriving to lower his rank in the army. 

If one wants a lesson in patience, in self-restraint, 
in coolness of judgment, and in loyalty to duty, he must 
study the conduct of General Grant during the ninety 
days immediately following Donelson. In singularity 
and pathos nothing in the career of any distinguished 
commander equals it. His dispatch to Halleck on the 
5th of March shows how firmly General Grant had com- 
mand of his temper. With positiveness, and yet with 
modesty and politeness, he informed the commander of 



106 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

the department that he had made daily reports of his 
movements; and he adds: 

"Believing sincerely that I must have enemies, between you 
and myself, who are trying to impair my usefulness, I respect- 
fully ask to be relieved from further duty in the department." 

The orders relieving him went into effect at once, 
and the expedition moved up the Tennessee under the 
command of General Smith, his junior in rank. Gen- 
eral Grant never forgot the trial of his soul at that 
time. Within a few months of his death he wrote these 
pathetic lines : 

"Thus in less than two weeks after the victory at Donelson, 
the two leading generals of the armj' were in correspondence as 
to what disposition should be made of me, and in less than three 
weeks I was virtually in arrest and without a command." 

A few days after the dispatches, so damaging to 

General Grant, were sent by Ilalleck to Washington, all 

the records which related to the general command of the 

army were consolidated in the office of the adjutant 

general in the War Department. Mr. Gorham, in his 

life of Stanton, says: 

"This brought to light much information which was new to 
the President and the Secretary of War. Among these discov- 
eries were the private dispatches from Halleck to McClellan of 
March 2nd and 4th, 1862, so damaging to Grant. . . . This 
evidently was the first knowledge the War Department had that 
they (the charges) had been made by Halleck." 

On the 10th of March, Adjutant General Thomas, of 

the army, requested from Ilalleck a report as to the 

ground upon which the harsh accusations against 

General Grant were made. This peremptory request 



HALLECK SEEKS GRANT'S DEBASEMENT 107 

from Thomas forced Halleck into a trap of his own in- 
venting. Not being in possession of any facts with 
which to sustain the cruel charges, he contented himself 
with the simple suggestion that no further notice be 
taken of the matter. 

One cannot read this singular incident of the war 
without being amazed at the part played in it by 
McClellan. He did not then explain, nor at any time 
thereafter, by what sort of reasoning he justified him- 
self in being so ready to suggest the deep humiliation of 
his friend and comrade when there w^as not at hand any 
tangible evidence to support the terrible accusations. 
Another and an amazing feature of the incident is, that 
when McClellan had all the light necessary to prove the 
falsity of the charges, and General Grant was still in the 
dark as to the identity of his secret foe, he did not 
promptly take measures to relieve him of the load of 
blame which rested so heavily upon him. In My Own 
Story, McClellan says : 

"More than a year after the event, General William B. 
Franklin wrote me that on meeting General Grant at Memphis 
. . . he asked what had made me hostile to him. Franklin 
replied that he knew I was not hostile, but very friendly to him. 
Grant then said that that could not be so, for, without reason, 
I had ordered Halleck to relieve him from command and arrest 
him soon after Fort Donelson, and that Halleck had interposed 
to save him. I took no steps to undeceive Grant, trusting to 
time to elucidate the question." 

Milton says : "Let Truth and Falsehood grapple 
in a free and open encounter, and who ever knew 
Truth being put to the worse ?" But in General 



108 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Grant's case, McClellan did not seem inclined to give 
Truth a fair chance in the grapple. And after a lapse 
of forty-six years, time has not elucidated the motive 
which prompted McClellan to order the arrest of Grant. 

McClellan was relieved from the command of all 
the armies of the Union on the 11th of March, 1862, 
and Halleck not being able to make good his charges 
against General Grant, the latter was restored to his 
command on the 17th of the same month, and at once 
he proceeded to Savanna. Halleck furnished him a 
copy of a dispatch from himself to Washington entirely 
exonerating him, ''but" say the Memoirs, "he did not 
inform me that it was his own reports that had created 
all the trouble." When he arrived at Savanna to re- 
lieve General Smith, he found him in a sick bed, the 
result of an injury received when stepping on a boat at 
Donelson, and from which he died on the 25th of 
April, 1862. 

A valuable contribution to the history of Halleck's 
ill treatment of Grant is the following letter written by 
the latter to Mrs. Grant a few days after he assumed 
command of the forces at Savanna : 

"Savanna, March 29, 1862. 

"All the slanders you have seen against me originated away 
from where I was. The only foundation was from the fact that 
I was ordered to remain at Fort Henry and send the expedition 
under Major-General Smith. This was ordered because General 
Halleck received no report from me for nearly two weeks after 
the fall of Donelson. The same occurred with me. I received 
nothing from him. . . . 



HALLECK SEEKS GRANT'S DEBASEMENT 109 

"When I was ordered to remain behind, it was the cause of 
much astonishment among the troops of my command, and also 
disappointment. I never allowed a word of contradiction to go 
out from my headquarters. You need not fear but what I shall 
come out triumphantly. I am pulling no wires, as political gen- 
erals do, to advance myself. I have no future ambition. My 
object is to carry on my part of this war successfully, and I am 
perfectly willing that others may make all the glory they can 
out of it" 

The letter is characteristic of the man. It reveals a 
strong head, a stout heart, a prophetic eye, and a sub- 
lime confidence in himself, when an officer, superior in 
rank, was intriguing for his debasement. 




XVIII. 

SHILOH AND VICTORY. 

T has already been noted that General Grant 
assumed command of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee on the 17th of March, and that he 
immediately proceeded to Savanna, on the 
east bank of the Tennessee river. The town is two hun- 
dred and ten miles from Paducah, where the river 
empties into the Ohio. Nine miles farther up the Ten- 
nessee (southward) was historic Pittsburg Landing, 
then almost uninhabited. Twenty-two miles to the 
southwest of the Landing was Corinth, Miss., small in 
population, but large in its importance as a strategic 
point because of its railway intersections. General 
Grant was not insensible to the value of the position as 
a railway center, and on being restored to his command 
he began to gather his forces at Pittsburg Landing for 
the purpose of striking a blow at Corinth. 

At the beginning of the movement to Pittsburg 



SHILOH AND VICTORY 111 

Landing, General Grant's army consisted of five divis- 
ions, under the command of William T. Sherman, John 
A. McClernand, Stephen A. Hurlbiit, Lew Wallace, 
and. General Smith being ill, his division was placed 
temporarily under the command of W. H. L. Wallace. 
Buell had been ordered from Nashville with his army 
of 40,000, and was to join General Grant at Savanna. 
During the interval between taking command of the 
army and the opening of the battle of Shiloh, he usually 
spent the day at the Landing counselling with his gen- 
erals and returning to Savanna in the evening. His 
purpose was to move his headquarters to that point as 
early as the 3d or 4th of April, but the Memoirs say: 
"Buell was expected daily and would come in at Sa- 
vanna. ... I therefore remained at this point a 
few days longer than I otherwise should have done in 
order to meet him on his arrival." 

By no principle of aggressive warfare could a clash 
of arms in the vicinity of Pittsburg Landing be averted. 
It was while General Grant was practically in retire- 
ment during the first two weeks in March that General 
Charles F. Smith, then in temporary command, selected 
this place at which the Army of the Tennessee should be 
concentrated ; and when General Grant was restored to 
his command and ordered to Savanna, he visited the 
Landing and making a careful study of the ground, 
said : "This is the place from which to begin the move- 
ment against the enemy." And it was well that that 
part of the West was the place where the manhood, the 



112 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

courage, and the endurance of the Army of the Ten- 
nessee under General Grant, and the Confederate forces 
under General Albert Sydney Johnston, should be 
tested. 

General Johnston seems to have been informed of 
BuelFs movement ; and in an aggressive mood he laid a 
plan "to whip Grant before Buell could join him, then 
whip Buell, and having thus disposed of the Northern 
forces in detail, to carry the war up into Ohio." There- 
fore, Johnston, in his self-confidence issued a grandilo- 
quent address to his army, and on Saturday he began 
the march to his Waterloo. 

At three o'clock on Sunday morning, April 6th, 
three companies of the Forty-fifth Missouri regiment 
were sent out from General Prentiss' division to recon- 
noiter. Going in a southwesterly course they struck 
the enemy's pickets a short distance from the front of 
Sherman's division. Shots were exchanged, and the 
firing being heard by General Johnston, who, with his 
staff, was taking an early breakfast, he asked his son 
Preston to record the time. It was exactly fourteen 
minutes past five o'clock, and the order to advance was 
given immediately. 

At the same hour that Johnston and his staff were 
taking an early breakfast two or three miles from the 
advanced line of the Union forces, General Grant and 
his staff were breakfasting at Savanna. Suddenly firing 
was heard in the direction of Pittsburg Landing. In 
five minutes the General and his staff were steaming up 



8HIL0H AND VICTORY 113 

the Tennessee. The firing was the shock of battle. Shi- 
loh had begun. He arrived at the Landing between 
eight and nine o'clock, and found considerable confu- 
sion among the troops. For three hours there had been 
no one to direct them. The General lost no time in 
riding to the front, and giving such orders as conditions 
seemed to demand. As time passed, the fury of the 
conflict increased. From sunrise to sunset it was a 
desperate struggle on both sides. Americans were fight- 
ing Americans. Men fell fast on every hand. In the 
Union Army, except perhaps on the extreme left, bri- 
gade after brigade and division after division staggered 
in the effort to hold their positions. Hundreds upon 
hundreds of troops which had never before scented pow- 
der in battle became panic-stricken. An unintermitting 
tempest of bullets, shot, and shells raged throughout 
the day. "Everything seemed to be quaking." 

But all through the scene of carnage, the rolling 
back of troops, the loss of ground, the man who bore 
the tremendous responsibility of victory or defeat had 
hope in reserve. Hope is not worth counting where con- 
ditions are hopeful ; but on that eventful Sunday after- 
noon, when other commanders seemed almost in de- 
spair, General Grant's hope shone like a star through 
the darkness. Candid and dispassionate testimony on 
this point is given by Mr. Whitelaw Keid, distinguished 
as a war correspondent/ and who was on the battlefield 
at the time : "The tremendous roar on the left, momen- 
tarily nearer and nearer, told of an effort to cut him off 



114 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYiiTERY 

from the river and from retreat. Grant sat on his horse, 
quiet, thoughtful, almost stolid. Said one to him, 'Does 
not the prospect begin to look gloomy?' 'ISTot at all,' 
was the quiet reply. 'They can't force our lines around 
these batteries to-night, it is too late. Delay counts 
everything with us. To-morrow we shall attack them 
with fresh troops and drive them of course.' I was my- 
self a listener to this conversation, and from it I date, 
in my own case at least, the beginning of any belief in 
Grant's greatness." 

For twelve hours every physical energy of General 
Grant and his army had been taxed to its utmost en- 
durance by such a conflict as this continent had never 
seen before. The powerful forces which were hurled 
against him had greatly depleted his army. Prentiss 
and his division had been captured. W. H. L. Wallace 
fell mortally wounded. The commands of Sherman 
and McClernand which did the hardest fighting of the 
day at the little Shiloh church (after which the battle 
takes its name) were rolled back. Much ground had 
been lost, practically nothing gained. And no doubt 
amidst these awful battle scenes, with his troops in the 
extreme of exhaustion, General Grant felt like calling 
out : "Would to heaven that Buell or night would come." 

General Johnston was mortally wounded in the 
afternoon, but still determined "to whip Grant," he con- 
tinued to give orders till weakness caused him to faint, 
and on being taken from his horse, he expired in a few 
minutes. Beauregard took command, and the story was 



SHILOH AND VICTORY 115 

current at the time that he vowed his horse would drink 
of the waters of the Tennessee that night. But he did 
not reckon on the frailty of a boast emanating from a 
wild imagination, for when night came, Beauregard 
could not reach the Tennessee, and the battle was more 
than half won by the Union army. 

In support of this view of the condition of affairs on 
Sunday evening, the substance of a page from the Life 
of Lincoln, by Nicolay and Hay, is of much value. 
The plan of the Confederates was to get possession of 
Pittsburg Landing, cut off Grant's means of retreat by 
seizing or destroying the transj^orts, and compel him to 
capitulate. But Grant was so successful in shattering 
the Confederate plan that Beauregard ordered the whole 
army to withdraw from the fight, and to go into bivouac 
until the following day. Eager as that commander was 
for victory, the conclusion had been forced on his mind 
that, for that day at least, it was not within the power 
of his army to complete their undertaking ; and accord- 
ingly, he directed that the fight should cease, and this 
determination was reached when he did not know that 
Buell had arrived. 

It would seem that among thoughtful and unpreju- 
diced students of the Civil War, there can hardly be 
two minds as to the value of General Grant's services 
during the strain of Sunday's engagement. Of course 
"the blind and intricate battlefield offered little chance 
to either side for careful planning; and the command- 
ing generals were not able to render the usual service." 



116 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYtiTERY 

But every regiment, brigade, and division commander 
knew that General Grant was on the field, and it is 
hardly a matter of doubt that his presence had much 
sustaining influence. On this point there is significance 
in the remark of the General made several months after 
the battle. When asked what event could have hap- 
pened to change the result on Sunday afternoon, he 
said : "If either Sherman or myself had been seriously 
wounded before the formation of the last line near the 
river was completed, between four and five o'clock, the 
field would probably have been lost." 

After General Grant had commanded on many bat- 
tlefields, he was asked by General Porter: "In all your 
battles up to this time, where do you think your pres- 
ence upon the field was most useful ?" Hesitating for a 
moment he answered : "Well, I don't know." But after 
a pause he said in an impressive tone: "Perhaps at 
Shiloh." Then he instantly changed the subject for he 
never desired to speak of the battle. The price paid for 
the victory had a peculiarly depressing effect upon him ; 
but he knew, as every other general knew, who bore his 
part of the burden and responsibility of Sunday's en- 
gagement, that by no other means than an awful sacri- 
fice could victory have been won. 

During the battle on Sunday General Grant suffered 
persistent pain caused by a bruised ankle, the result of 
his horse falling on the previous Friday night, which 
deprived him of rest and sleep, but nevertheless he vis- 
ited every important part of the field, knew personally 



8E1L0H AND VICTORY 117 

the condition of affairs, and on Sunday night he rode 
through the darkness and the storm, and gave orders for 
the renewal of the battle at the break of day. 

Colonel Theophilus L. Dickey, of the Fourth Illi- 
nois Cavalry, who, after the war, became justice of the 
Supreme Court of his State, was in the battle of Shiloh. 
He says that after nightfall on Sunday, the members of 
the General's staff were discussing what seemed to them 
a hopeless situation, and the Colonel was urged to go to 
the General and obtain his views on the condition of 
things. The Colonel found him sitting under a tree, 
his only shelter from the beating storm. The General 
listened attentively to a doleful rehearsal of the results 
of Sunday's battle ; and then, straightening out his un- 
injured leg, he asked : "Dickey, do you like this kind of 
cavalry boot?" The single question closed the inter- 
view. 

That night General Grant saw the members of his 
staff, and spreading before them a map, he called their 
attention to the position of the enemy, and then issued 
orders which were to be executed at a certain time on 
the morrow unless other contingencies happened. His 
staff were amazed, and at once they saw how little they 
understood the real question ; and for the first time they 
seemed to realize that the General was the master of the 
situation. 

On Sunday circumstances compelled General Grant 
to fight a defensive battle. He could put only 25,000 
men in line, while Johnston's strength was not less than 



118 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

40,000. But on Monday morning, Buell placed between 
18,000, and 20,000 on the left, and Lew Wallace added 
5,000 or 6,000 on the right. 

This is not the place to discuss the matter of Buell's 
and Wallace's belated arrival at Pittsburg Landing. 
Neither of them reached the field in time to take part in 
Sunday's engagement. But when these officers placed 
their commands on the firing line on Monday, they 
made a large contribution to the splendid victory of the 
day. As both sides to the controversy "have had their 
day in court," the matter should be relegated to the 
graveyard of dead issues never to be resurrected. 

A few minutes after the break of day on Monday, 
General Grant's army fired the first shot. Beauregard 
seemed determined to fight an offensive battle. At once 
the great columns of the Union army moved steadily 
forward, and with the rising of the sun the engagement 
became general. The Federal troops, in solid ranks, 
and with a continuous fire, regained the ground lost on 
Sunday. At three o'clock in the afternoon, while Gen- 
eral Grant was closely watching the progress of the bat- 
tle, word came to him that the enemy was faltering on 
the left. He saw that the time had come for the final 
blow. He himself was within musket range of the 
enemy. Quickly he sent the words down the lines: 
"Now is the time to drive them." The charge was 
made, the field was swept; and Shiloh was won. 

The Union loss was 1,Y50 killed; 8,400 wounded; 
and 2,800 missing. The Confederate loss was supposed 



SHILOE AND VICTORY 119 

to be much greater, as the estimate of burials for the 
whole field was 4,000. 

To this day there is much persistent misunderstand- 
ing of the battle of Shiloh. The particulars which have 
formed the subject of dispute relate to those regarding 
the situation at the opening of the battle on Sunday 
morning, and also to what extent the presence of Gen- 
eral Grant had bearing on the fortunes of the day. Some 
of the General's harshest critics are those who had lit- 
tle or nothing to do with the battle of Sunday, which 
calls to mind one of Napoleon's meditations on St. Hel- 
ena: "Those generals only who never commanded 
armies in the field have not committed errors." To par- 
ticularize in regard to the blunders imputed to General 
Grant, in not being prepared against surprise by the 
enemy, in defying danger by choosing an advanced posi- 
tion, in failing to throw up intrenchments by which to 
protect his troops, and in not providing means of rapid 
retreat, would not elucidate the subject to the satisfac- 
tion of all readers. But to the average person who 
knows something of Grant and war history, it is quite 
humorous to find critics calling the General imprudent 
in not seeking safety behind earthworks, and in not 
providing a way for rapid retreat. 

In his judgment General Grant had no need of in- 
trenchment, as it was his purpose to take Corinth as 
soon as Buell arrived ; and it is idle to conjecture what 
might have been had he judged otherwise. Pie was com- 
missioned to command the Armv of the Tennessee in 



120 GRAH^T, TEE MAN OF MYSTERY 

its movements against Johnston; and his natural bent 
of mind was not to be hammered at behind intrench- 
ments, but to move at the earliest possible hour against 
the enemy's works of Corinth. General Grant clung 
with tenacity to aggressive tactics, and fought behind 
fewer breastworks than any other commander in the 
army, and his success was incomparable. No being, not 
gifted with prescience, has a right to say that it was a 
criminal blunder not to fortify even for the short time 
the General expected to remain at Pittsburg Landing. 
A great battle was imminent from which neither side 
could escape with honor. The powerful opposing forces 
could not clash at the Landing, with or without intrench- 
ments, nor by an assault upon the strong works at Cor- 
inth, without a terrible sacrifice of life. General John- 
ston attempted to take General Grant by surprise, lost 
his life in the struggle that followed, and did not ac- 
complish a single purpose for which he brought on the 
battle ; and leaving behind him more than ten thousand 
in killed, wounded, and missing, Beauregard fled back 
to Corinth disheartened. 

In years to come when the careful historian, un- 
biassed by prejudice or passion, with all the facts which 
the light of history can reveal before him, makes record 
of Shiloh, that record will clearly show that in contend- 
ing for a whole day with a force superior to his own, 
General Grant displayed the highest qualities of cour- 
age, endurance, and generalship. Thoughtful military 
critics marvel that in all the circumstances, he saved 
himself from crushing defeat ; that through all the roar 



8HIL0H AND VICTORY 121 

of cannon, din of musketry, destruction of life, break- 
ing of lines, staggering columns, doubt and despairs, he 
did not lose faith in himself or his army, and that amid 
the excitement, confusion, vexations, and discourage- 
ments of the day, he was so calm that no unkind or 
doubtful word, or harsh command, came from his lips. 
Beauregard, in directing that his attacks should cease on 
Sunday evening, and ordering his troops to withdraw 
until the following day, was virtually making a confes- 
sion that General Grant had thus far defeated all his 
purposes. Men marvel, too, that Grant, generous in 
heart, and calm and fair in judgment, did not impute 
neglect of duty to any officers or men engaged in that 
momentous conflict on Sunday, and that Shiloh cost 
fewer in killed and wounded than any other victory of 
the same magnitude won during the Civil War.* And 
the wonder of all wonders of the war is, that in ten 
months from the day this silent, obscure, unambitious 
man was given the command of a volunteer regiment, 
he was the successful commander in the first of the five 
greatest battles ever fought in open field on the iVmeri- 
can continent. 



* The following are the Union losses in killed and wounded in 
the five greatest battles in open field fought in the Civil War: Shi- 
loh — Union force, 1st day, 33,000, 2n^ day, 48,000, Confederate force, 
40,300 ; Union k. and w., 10,162. Antietam — Union forces, 75,300, 
Conf. force, estimated from 45,000 to 70,000, Union k. and w. 11,600. 
Variously described as a Union victory and as indecisive. Murfrees- 
boro — Union force, 41,400, Conf. force, 34,700, Union k. and w. 
9,200. Union victory. Gettysburg — Union force, 78,000, Conf. force, 
75,000, Union k. and w., 17,684. Union victory. Chickamauga — Union 
force, 58,200, Conf. force, 66,300, Union k. and w. 11,400. Union 
defeat. 



XIX. 



AFTER THE BATTLE. 




HEN the smoke of battle bad cleared away, 

General Grant issued tbe following general 

order : 

"The general commanding congratulates the troops 
who so gallantly repulsed and routed a numerically superior force 
of the enemy, composed of the flower of the vSouthern army, com- 
manded by their ablest generals, and fought by them with all the 
desperation of despair. 

"In numbers engaged, no such contest ever took place on this 
continent; in importance of results, but few such have taken 
place in the history of the world. 

"Whilst congratulating the brave and gallant soldiers, it be- 
comes the duty of the general commanding to make special notice 
of the brave wounded and those killed upon the field. Whilst 
they leave friends and relatives to mourn their loss, they have 
won a nation's gratitude and undying laurels, not to be forgotten 
by future generations, who will enjoy the blessings of the best 
government the sun ever shone upon, preserved by their valor." 

But tbe general public did not seem to understand 

tbe importance of tbe victory, and it began to make com- 



AFTER THE BATTLE 123 

plaints. It first exulted "because Beauregard was com- 
pelled to retreat, and then grumbled because Grant per- 
mitted him to retreat." This peculiar feeling was the 
product of the seed sown by reckless and prejudiced 
newspaper correspondents and editorial writers, who 
magnified the casualties of the battle and depreciated 
the gain. On the heel of these ill-natured complaints 
came a demand for General Grant's removal. But 
neither Lincoln nor Stanton sympathized with malcon- 
tents. The public was slow to understand the real situ- 
ation at Shiloh. Getting its information from the news- 
papers, it could see only the worst side of the conflict ; 
and Halleck, who had caused General Grant more 
trouble and anxiety than did the Confederate generals, 
did much to foster this bitter feeling of opposition. For 
instance, on the 13th of April, he telegraphed Stanton 
from Pittsburg Landing (having arrived there two 
days after the battle) as follows : 

"It is the unanimous opinion here that Brigadier General 
Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, and con- 
tributed largely to the glorious victory on the 7th. He was in 
the thickest of the fight, having three horses killed under him, 
and being twice wounded. I respectfully request that he be made 
a major general of volunteers." 

It is true that General Sherman merited high praise 
for his services at Shiloh, but Halleck's dispatch did not 
influence the War Department. On the 23d of April, 
Stanton demanded from Halleck a detailed account of 
the battle, and a positive statement as to whether any 
neglect or misconduct on the part of General Grant or 



124 GRA^'T, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

any other officer contributed to the casualties that befell 
the Union forces on Sunday. For the second time Hal- 
leck had been caught in a trap which he had unwittingly 
set for himself. He preferred not to name any indi- 
vidual officer who had been derelict to his duty, and he 
never complied with the request of the War Department. 

The widespread clamor for General Grant's removal 
was one of the most amazing incidents of the war. Con- 
sidering all the facts connected with Sunday's battle, 
the charges against him, the libellous epithets, the per- 
sonal prejudice, and the malevolent and unsustained as- 
sertions, had no parallel in the history of modern war- 
fare. The condition of things was paradoxical as well 
as grotesque. While President Lincoln was signing a 
proclamation calling upon the people to assemble in 
places of worship and render thanks to God for the suc- 
cess (Donelson and Shiloh) which had attended the 
army of the Union, and one hundred guns were being 
fired in Washington in honor of Grant's victories, the 
public was clamoring for his retirement from the army. 

Among the influential public men who w^ere wild in 
their unreasonable prejudice against Grant and cried 
aloud for his dismissal, was Colonel Alexander K. 
McClure of Philadelphia. He could not see how the 
President could sustain himself if he persisted in re- 
taining Grant. So he went to Washington to counsel 
with Mr. Lincoln, and urge him in the name of the peo- 
ple to remove Grant without delay. I will let the 



AFTER THE BATTLE 125 

Colonel tell in his own way the result of his visit to the 
President : 

"I appealed to Lincoln for his own sake to remove 
Grant at once, and in giving my reasons for it I simply 
voiced the admittedly overwhelming protest from the 
loyal people of the land against Grant's continuance in 
command. . . . When I had said everything that 
could be said from my standpoint, we lapsed into si- 
lence. Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very 
long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair 
and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never for- 
get : 'I can't spare this man ; he fights.' That was all he 
said, but I knew that it was enough, and that Grant was 
safe in Lincoln's hands against the countless hosts of 
enemies." 

Lincoln saved Grant, and Grant and his armies 
saved the nation. "He fights ;" and by that sign he won 
at Shiloh. And in coming years, they who read history 
aright will learn that in General Grant's pathway from 
Belmont to Appomattox, a pathway strewn with mighty 
deeds, he did not fight a battle in which he displayed 
more terrible determination, more inexplicable confi- 
dence, or accomplished more for the Union than on Sun- 
day at Shiloh. Two days after the battle Halleck ar- 
rived at Pittsburg Landing, and assumed command of 
the troops. It was his purpose to strengthen the army 
and move on Corinth, whither Beauregard had re- 
treated. Within three weeks he had over 100,000 men 
with which to begin his grand march. In reorganizing 



126 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

and rearranging the army General Grant was substan- 
tially left out of consideration. To use his own words : 
"I was little more than an observer." And Sherman 
says: "For more than a month Grant thus remained 
without any apparent authority, frequently visiting me 
and others, and rarely complaining ; but I could see that 
he felt deeply the indignity, if not the insult, heaped 
upon him." 

This magnificent army began its march toward Cor- 
inth on the 30th of April, under the command of a 
general "who could not ride a horse faster than a walk." 
His advance on Corinth will be a curiosity of history 
for all time to come. So careful was he not to provoke 
the enemy to wrath lest there might be trouble, "that 
all commanders," says General Grant, "were cautioned 
against bringing on an engagement, and informed in so 
many words that it would be better to retreat than to 
fight." 

The time made by Halleck in marching his splendid 
army with practically no enemy to impede his progress, 
is made strangely ridiculous by contrast. When John- 
ston and Beauregard moved the Confederate army from 
Corinth to the field of Shiloh, they consumed two days. 
But Halleck, passing over the same roads, making the 
same distance, wasted thirty days. And when Corinth 
Avas finally reached, this grand army, with surprise 
mingled wath humiliation, gazed upon empty fortifica- 
tions. The Confederates had folded their tents and 
stolen away. In a few days this grand collection of 



AFTER THE BATTLE 127 

troops, having accomplished nothing in going to Cor- 
inth, was distributed among various commanders and 
marched away — but General Grant remained. 

His position at Corinth was but nominal. He keenly 
felt the wrong done him by Halleck, and for the fourth 
time in his life, and the last, his will-power failed him. 
The "Iron Duke" of the Civil War became heart-sick, 
his endurance was worn out, he longed for retirement 
and peace of mind. It was at this juncture that General 
Sherman's visit to General Grant no doubt saved him to 
the nation. An account of this visit is given in Sher- 
man's own words : 

"A short time before leaving Corinth I rode to Hal- 
leck's headquarters .... when he mentioned to 
me casually that Grant was going away next morning. 
I inquired the cause, and he said he did not know, but 
that Grant had applied for a thirty days' leave, which 
had been given him. Of course we all knew that he was 
chafing under the slights of his anomalous position, and 
I determined to see him on my way back. . . I 
found him seated on a camp-stool, employed in assort- 
ing letters. ... I inquired if it were true that he 
was going away. He said, 'yes.' I then inquired the 
reason, and he said: 'Sherman, you know I am in the 
way here. I have stood it as long as I can, and can en- 
dure it no longer.' I inquired where he was going, and 
he said, 'St. Louis.' I then asked if he had any business 
there, and he said, 'Not a bit.' I then begged him to 
stay, illustrating his case by my own. 



128 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

"Before the battle of Shiloh, I had been cast down by 
a mere newspaper assertion of 'crazy' ; but that single 
battle had given me new life, and now I was in high 
feather; and I argued with him that if he went away 
events would go right along, and he would be left out ; 
whereas, if he remained, some happy accident might re- 
store him to favor and his true place. . . . He 
promised to wait awhile, and not to go without seeing 
me again, or communicating with me. Very soon after 
this I was ordered to Chewalla, where on the 6th of 
June I received a note from him, saying that he had re- 
considered his intention to leave, and would remain." 

Perhaps it is useless to speculate as to General 
Grant's future if, in his despondent mood his good 
friend Sherman had not come to his relief. Events 
were changing rapidly, and according to all human cal- 
culation, absenting himself from the activities of the 
army for a month would have lost him his position as 
second in command at Corinth. To write with careful- 
ness and sincerity, one hesitates to predict how much 
General Grant's absence from the army at that critical 
period would have influenced the result of the war. 
Only the Omniscient God knows what would have been 
the fate of the Union forces had the General lost his 
rank in the army at that time. 



XX. 



^ 



RESUMING COMMAND AND WINNING BATTLES. 

HEN General Grant concluded to remain 
with the army his headquarters were trans- 
ferred to Memphis at his own request; but 
he remained there only a short time, for on 
the 10th of July Governor William Sprague of Rhode 
Island was sent to Corinth on a confidential mission in 
behalf of the authorities at Washington, On his arrival 
he sought the headquarters of Halleck, and after a pri- 
vate conference lasting several hours, he departed. The 
Governor's business at Corinth was to offer Halleck, in 
the name of the President, a place in Washington, with 
enlarged powers in the army: and on the 11th of July 
the following order was issued by the President : 

"Ordered, that Major-General Halleck take command of all 
the land forces, and that he repair to this capital so soon as he 
can with safety to the position and operations within the depart- 
ment under his special charge." 

At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the same day, Hal- 



130 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

leek wired his compliance with the order in these words : 

"Your orders of this date are received. General Grant, next 
in command, is at Memphis. I have telegraphed to him to imme- 
diately repair to this place. 

"I will start for Washington the moment I can have a per- 
sonal interview with General Grant." 

The call of Halleck to Washington was a gratifying 
close of General Grant's many troubles with that com- 
mander. He was himself again. He could now clearly 
see his way to success. But by the scattering of the 
army of 100,000 men who had made the fruitless march 
to Corinth, Grant was left in a hostile territory with 
only 50,000 troops. His front line extended from Mem- 
phis to Corinth, a distance of one hundred miles. This 
condition of affairs forced upon him a delicate respon- 
sibility. But at this time, as in almost all other periods 
of his career as a commander, he accomplished more 
than was expected of him. His nature demanded free- 
dom to act, and action was proof of his ability to com- 
mand and succeed. Instinctively he believed in the 
principle that a bold onset was half the battle. 

"The Confederate Generals Price and Van Horn 
were in front of him — southward — the former on the 
left and the latter on the right. In the middle of Sep- 
tember they made a movement to effect a junction and 
attack and disperse Grant's forces, or together passing 
his blank to reinforce Bragg in his campaign in Ken- 
tucky against Buell." When Grant heard of the bold 
purpose of Price and Van Dorn, he immediately set his 
army in motion- He ordered Generals W. S. Rosecrans 



RESUMING COMMAND AND WINNING BATTLES 131 

and E. O. C. Ovd, together liaving 17,000 nieu, to at- 
tack Iiika, twentj-two miles southwest of Corinth. For 
the purpose of directing the movement of the army in 
this engagement, General Grant made Burnsville, seven 
miles north of luka, his headquarters. The battle began 
late in the afternoon of September 19th, and on the fol- 
lowing day the Confederates were forced to retreat. 

Still determined to whip General Grant, Price and 
Van Dorn devised a plan to attack and capture Corinth. 
Grant gave the command at Corinth to Eosecrans, while 
his own headquarters were established at Jackson, 
Tenn., forty miles northward, where he could liottor 
direct the forces under him. Rosecrans had 28,000 
men, while Price, Van Dorn, and Lowell had 38,000. 
The Confederates opened the battle on the 3d of Octo- 
ber, and the resoluteness of the attack with sucli a su- 
perior force at first seemed likely to be successful. The 
battle was waged with a fierceness akin to Shiloh. But 
it was the good fortune of the Union troops "that on the 
next day they fought behind the breast works Grant had 
constructed after Halleck left the army." Determined 
as was the assault, it was repulsed with serious loss to 
the Confederates. Next to Shiloh it was the hardest 
fought battle in the West up to that time. The TJnion 
victory was so complete that it changed the whole as- 
pect of affairs in Tennessee. It also prevented Price 
and Van Dorn from carrying out their cherished plan 
to reinforce Bragg. When the account of the success at 
Corinth reached Washington, it drew from President 
Lincoln a message of sincere congratulation. 




XXI. 

GRANT AND THE CONTRABANDS. 

X the 25tli of October, 1862, General Grant 
was given full command of the Department 
of the Tennessee ; and immediately he made 
a campaign through central Mississippi, at 
which time he began to plan for the capture of Vicks- 
burg. But before proceeding further with General 
Grant's army operations in the autumn and early win- 
ter of 1862, I wish to introduce an exceedingly inter- 
esting and important piece of history, which can be 
classed among many other incidents, showing that the 
mystery of his character was not wholly confined to 
organizing campaigns and winning battles. 

General John Eaton, wiio died in 1905, was ap- 
pointed chaplain of the Twenty-seventh Ohio volunteers, 
and after serving as colonel of the Sixty-third United 
States Colored Infantry, was made lu'igadier general 
bv brevet. After the war he held the office of Commis- 



GRAM' A^'D THE CONTRABANDS 133 

sioner of the United States Bureau of Education for 
sixteen years. While serving as chaplain of his regi- 
ment, he became intimately acquainted with General 
Grant in the autumn of 1862. "Contrabands," as the 
negroes who reached the Union lines were then called, 
were numerous, and needed the care and protection of 
the government. General Grant understood this thor- 
oughly. His thoughtfulness was far-reaching, and with- 
out consulting Chaplain Eaton or anyone else, he issued 
special order ]^o. 15, in ISTovember, 1862 : 

"Chaplain Eaton of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Volunteers is 
hereby appointed to take charge of the contrabands that come 
into camp, organizing them into suitable companies for working, 
seeing that they are properly eared for, and setting them to work, 
picking, ginning, and baling all cotton now out and ungathered 
in the fields." 

General Eaton wrote many interesting pages on 
"Lincoln, Grant, and the Negro," in which he tells with 
peculiar interest of his surprise when he first met Gen- 
eral Grant. From the wild stories which were circu- 
lated about him shortly after the battle of Shiloh, he 
expected to find an intemperate, incompetent, brutal, 
and vulgar soldier; "but to my surprise," he says, "I 
found a simple, unassuming man, without any ostenta- 
tion, living as plainly as a private soldier. My eyes 
were on the alert for signs of dissipation in his face, 
but there were no signs of that sort there. Everything 
about him betokened sobriety, simplicity, and modera- 
tion, and the atmosphere surrounding him showed dig- 



l:J4 (J HAST, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

iiity and respect which his associate generals manifested 
for liim." 

Wlicn th(^ special order was issued, General Eaton, 
then being only thirty years old and without business 
experience, asked to be relieved from the large responsi- 
bility thus iinposed upon him. But General Grant had 
taken an accurate measurement of the young chaplain's 
qualification, and said : "You are the man who has all 
these darkies on his shoulders." He then went on to ex- 
plain his plan for the solution of the negro problem, 
which he decided to take, as general of the army, 
without waiting for instructions from Washington. 

General Eaton says the interview with Grant ]->ro- 
foundly impressed him with the "General's ability, sin- 
cerity, and far-sighted statesmanship as he disclosed his 
plans for meeting the emergency," so far as the conti-a- 
bands were concerned. He M^as the first general to take 
the initiative in utilizing in a practical and humane 
way, the labor of contrabands. Out of special order No. 
15, originated the "Freedmen's Bureau." 

Speaking of the conversations with Grant regarding 
his habits of life. General Eaton says : "He told me so 
freely of his old life that these conversations were as un- 
expected to me as they were delightful. I was particu- 
larly impressed with the candor with which he referred 
to the accusation of intemperance made against him. 
It was plain that his army life in Washington Territory 
and Oregon had been full of temptations, and it is more 
than probable that he followed the example of other 



GRANT AND THE CONTRABANDS 135 

officers while there. To escape from that temptation 
was certainly one of his motives for leaving the army, 
and I feel impelled to state as plainly as I can that 
Grant's temperance was unimpeachable after he had 
reentered the service and started upon his great career." 
It always remained a mystery to General Eaton why 
General Grant selected him to bear the enormous re- 
sponsibility of caring for the negroes who were escaping 
from slavery. The position of general superintendent 
of contrabands carried with it a vast amount of labor, 
anxiety, and accountability. And General Grant, with 
his usual reticence, never explained why the young 
Chaplain was appointed to do this important work. Al- 
though the General and the Chaplain had never met pre- 
vious to this incident, the former seemed to know as if 
by intuition, the spirit and capacity of the man in whom 
he was placing so great a trust. The selection was made 
with remarkable wisdom, for thereby General Eaton 
was instrumental in saving thousands of human beings 
from starvation, and leading them into conditions that 
were new and unfamiliar. 




XXII. 
THE GREATEST SIEGE IN HISTORY. 

EiXERAL GRANT'S campaign through 
^Mississippi was a preliminary study of how 
to capture Vicksburg. His chief disap- 
pointment during this campaign was the 
surrender of Holly Springs to Van Horn on the 20th 
of December, 1862, by Colonel Murphy of the Eighth 
Wisconsin. It was General Grant's purpose to make 
that place a base of supplies in moving against Vicks- 
burg from the east, and the unfortunate surrender com- 
pelled a radical change of plans. 

On the 29th of December, General Sherman, with 
30,000 men, made a test of the strength of the enemy's 
works at Vicksburg, by an attack at Chickasaw Bluffs, 
near the city. He was repulsed with considerable loss ; 
and those in the North who knew nothing of war or of 
the difficulties of the situation, raised the cry of "Re- 
pulse, failure, and bungling." As is usually the case, 
the non-combatants Avere doing all the grumbling. 



THE GREATEST SIEGE fN HISTORY 137 

General Grant was not slow in comprehending that 
Vicksburg was the best fortified city, both by nature 
and military art, in all the land. He was convinced that 
as far as Vicksburg was concerned, fighting fire with 
fire would not avail in the effort to capture what Jeffer- 
son Davis was proud to call the ''Gibraltar of America." I 
But the fact that Grant had to fight a senseless clamor / 
in the North as well as a determined foe in the South, 
and obstacles of nature, did not disturb him. But he 
fully realized the gravity of the situation. However, he 
did not shrink from the tremendous responsibility which 
the campaign placed upon him. He had a larger hope 
and a keener military insight than any other general in 
the field or at Washington. The authorities at the 
national capital were becoming restless with doubt and 
anxiety; but this strange commander, almost provok- 
ingly reticent at times, pursued the even tenor of his 
peculiar way. His mysterious genius gave him confi- 
dence ; and while many generals and millions of people 
were wondering what he would do next, Sherman says 
he went on quietly to work out his own designs. He was 
evolving in his mind a movement which, to the military 
critics, was more hazardous and incomprehensible than 
could be found in the history of wars. 

How to take Vicksburg was indeed the serious prob- 
lem of the hour. The Union forces in the West could 
not be entirely successful so long as the great hills at 
Vicksburg, with their hundreds of frowning cannon, 
obstructed the Mississippi river. General Grant was 



138 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

convinced that those hills, which stood like a defying, 
impregnable fortress, could not be taken from the north, 
and only from the east by moving an army of 30,000 or 
40,000 men below Grand Gulf where he could secure 
a foothold on the east side of the river. After accom- 
plishing this, his purpose was to make a rapid movement 
northeasterly, attack the enemy wherever found, drive 
him into Vicksburg, and "bottle him up." To his mind 
this could be done only by marching his troops on the 
Louisiana side of the river, from Milliken's Bend, sev- 
enteen miles above Vicksburg, to New Carthage, about 
twenty miles below the city. 

Another plan, which, however, did not originate 
with General Grant, was to dig a canal across the narrow 
neck of laud opposite Vicksburg, to intersect with the 
Mississippi below, a distance of one mile. It was 
thought that transports entering from the north, bear- 
ing troops and supplies, could pass through the canal 
with safety. An attempt was made to dig the canal in 
1862, by General Thomas Williams, but high water 
caused an abandonment of the enterprise on the 27th of 
March, 1863. 

The winter of 1863 was a trying time for General 
Grant. It was a winter of floods in the South, and a 
winter of discontent among the people of the North. He 
could not move his array, and many began the old cry 
after Donelson, "idle, incompetent, and unfit to com- 
numd in an emergency," and again arose a clamor for 



THE GREATEST SIEGE IN HISTORY VM 

his removal. It was a season of false alarm and sensa- 
tional nmaors. 

But there were two men in the laud from whence 
came words of cheer. One was listening quietly in a 
store in Cincinuati to a great deal of rambling and 
grumbling talk about the way General Grant was trying 
to take Vicksburg. When all others present had given 
vent to their feelings, this man said in a moderate tone : 
"I think he'll take it. Yes, I know^ he'll take it. 'Lis' 
always did what he set out to do. 'Lis' is my boy, and 
he won't fail." 

The other man who believed in General Grant was in 
the White House. He was too good to be unkind, and 
too wise and prudent to err. While men of large politi- 
cal influence were urging General Grant's removal for 
the good of the country, the philosopher at the Wliite 
House said : "I rather like the man ; I think we'll try 
him a little longer." By these thirteen words the fate 
of Vicksburg was sealed. 

During this time of public discontent General Grant 
was quietly thinking out a scheme whereby gunboats, 
transports, and barges laden with supplies could run 
fourteen miles of batteries past Vicksburg and Grand 
Gulf. He had a mental map, or picture, of how the city 
could be taken ; but he did not call to his assistance any 
of his generals nor even the members of his staff. Noth- 
ing could be gained by a council of war. The concep- 
tion was too bold for their approval. Even Sherman, 
who was closer to General Grant in thought and friend- 



140 GRAM', THE MAX OF MYHTERY 

ship than any other general, could not indorse the de- 
termination of his chief to defy the bristling batteries 
on the Yicksburg hills. It was not a "protest" against 
it as some authorities declare, but simply an opinion, 
that the saner plan to take the city was by a movement 
from the north. The cooperation of the navy would 
seem to be necessary, whatever plan might be adopted 
for the reduction of the Vicksburg forts, and therefore 
General Grant communicated to Admiral Porter his 
plan of campaign. The Admiral, whose fleet was in 
hiding not far from Young's Point above Vicksburg, 
was conscious of the fact that the part to be assigned to 
him would be one of the most hazardous naval manoeu- 
vres of the war, or of any war in history ; but having the 
fullest confidence in General Grant's judgment, he gave 
the plan his hearty indorsement. 

To obtain a clear understanding of the great danger 
in attempting to run the batteries it must be explained 
that Vicksburg occupies the summit and slopes of a lofty 
range of hills about two hundred feet above the river. 
A short distance below Young's Point the Mississippi 
turns above the city and runs nearly four miles north- 
easterly, and then, in passing the city, takes a south- 
westerly course for nearly the same distance. At this 
sharp bend in the river where it begins its southward 
course, the great bluffs juts insolently out into the chan- 
nel of the Mississippi. To General Grant, nothing 
seemed impossible ; and "having cast the eye of desire 
upon this special spot, he began to advance upon it 




VICKSBURG 



SHOWING THE COURSE THE VESSELS TOOK 
IX RUNNING THE BLOCKADE. 



^ 



THE GREATEST SIEOE IN HISTORY 141 

in a silent, pertinacious way, which no men, and no 
intrenchments could permanently withstand." 

When General Grant had determined to proceed 
against Vicksburg in the manner already outlined, he 
set on foot some stirring movements which were be- 
wildering to his associates. He was trying a new sys- 
tem of fighting to conquer. He scratched the word 
"rest" out of his vocabulary, and seemed determined to 
move right on as if impelled by some power which he 
could not resist. He was bidding good-bye to the North. 
His base of supplies was to be abandoned. He was tak- 
ing his troops, lightly equipped, into the enemy's 
country. The foe with which he could not escape bat- 
tle was greater in number than his own army. It 
seemed to everybody who was looking on that he could 
not escape disaster. But the orders to move were is- 
sued at once, and the greatest siege in history began in 
earnest. 

General McClernand, commanding the Thirteenth 
corps, led the advance of the army of about 32,000, and 
moved from Milliken's Bend on the 9th of March, 1863, 
and on the 6th of April he reached New Carthage. 
Parts of the corps of Sherman and McPherson — the 
Fifteenth and Seventeenth — were to follow McClernand 
in the order which had been determined by General 
Grant. 

The General's orders for the movement of the troops 
over the untried and impeditive route showed how care- 
fully he had thought out every detail of the march. He 



142 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

noted minutely liow the men should conduct themselves 
while marching and living off the country; and every 
necessary provision was made for the care of those who, 
in the strain of march, might fall by the wayside. 

The boldest and most perilous and uncertain fea- 
ture of this campaign was passing the murderous 
batteries which defended Vicksburg. The success of 
this movement depended wholly upon whether General 
Grant could get his fleet beloAv the city. Without ves- 
sels on which his army could cross from the west to the 
east side of the river, the campaign would be an utter 
failure. The bravery of men and the strength of gun- 
boats and transports were to be put to a supreme test. 
After most of the army had reached a point below 
Vicksburg by the overland route, on the Louisiana side, 
General Grant's plan for the movement of the fleet 
assumed definite shape; and on Wednesday, April 15th, 
he asked Admiral Porter : "Can I depend on you for a 
sufficient naval force to run the blockade?" "I will 
be ready to-morrow night," was the prompt answer. 
Each gunboat had taken for additional protection, 
baled cotton, railway iron, heavy timber, and huge 
chains. 

So dangerous was the attempt to run the batteries 
with transports that General Grant resolved not to 
order any man to take part in the movement. The 
officers and crews of the gunboats belonging to the regu- 
lar navy had no option in the matter, but it was other- 
wise with those engaged in the transport service. 



THE GREATEST SIEOE IN HISTORY 143 

Tliereforc volunteers from the army were called for, 
and a surprising number of men of nerve and patriotic 
ardor begged the privilege of risking their lives in the 
expedition. The General says that captains, pilots, 
mates, engineers, and deckhands presented themselves 
to take five times the number of vessels which were 
needed for the perilous voyage. One young man in 
the ''Lead Mining regiment," raised in Representative 
Washburne's district, declined one hundred dollars in 
cash for his chance of risking his life in passing the 
belching guns at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf. 

The first fleet selected to pass the batteries was 
composed of eight gunboats — Porter's flagship Benton 
taking the lead — and three transports carrying soldiers 
and provisions, and each towing a barge loaded with 
coal for the use of the gunboats. General Grant was 
on a transport, not connected with the blockade runners, 
that he might see how the fleet behaved, his boat being 
as far down the river as prudence would permit. 

About ten o'clock on Thursday night, April 16th, 
Porter started down the river with his fleet, the utmost 
quiet prevailing, and his boats simply drifting with the 
current. There was a grand ball in Vicksburg that 
night, and the Admiral supposed the sound of revelry 
would favor him in getting his transports past the bat- 
teries. "As I looked back," says Porter, "at the long 
line I could compare them only to so many phantom 
vessels. Not a light was to be seen nor a sound heard 
throughout the fleet." Porter thought he was going to 



144 GRA^'T, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

slip by unnoticed. But just as he approached the river 
bend where the frowning heights were covered Avith 
heavy batteries, a bright light along the levee illumi- 
nated everything. 

Porter's captain thought the town was on lire. "On 
the opposite side of the river was a large railway station 
with outbuildings, and as soon as the first fire broke 
out these also burst into flames. The upper fort opened 
its heavy guns upon the Bentoti, the shot rattling against 
her sides like hail, but she had four inches of iron 
plated over forty inches of oak, so that hardly any im- 
pression could be made upon her hull." 

^'It was one of the grandest scenes ever witnessed 
in war. It was the most daring of naval adventures, 
for upon its success depended, in a very large measure, 
the fate and reputation of General Grant, and of the 
army he commanded, and certainly the fate of Vicks- 
burg. Admiral Porter says that from every fort and 
hill-top vomited forth shot and shell. The scene might 
have answered for a picture of the infernal regions. I 
stood on deck admiring it, while the captain fought his 
vessel, and the pilot steered her through fire and smoke 
as coolly as if he were performing an everyday duty." 

This unparalleled adventure of the fleet, and the 
splendor of the scene, make it worth while to quote a 
few lines from an eye-witness who was too modest to 
give his name : 

"Lights twinkled l)usily from the Vicksburg hill- 
sides until ten o'clock, when they disappeared. Then 



THE (JREATEliT HIEUE IN UlUTOllY 145 

a shapeless mass of what looked like a great fragineut 
of darkness was discerned tioating noiselessly down the 
river. It was the Benton. It was followed by an- 
other bank of darkness, then another, and thus they 
continued as if huge shadows detached themselves from 
the blackness above, floated across the vision, and dis- 
appeared in the darkness below. Ten of these noise- 
less shapes revealed themselves and disappeared. 

"Three-quarters of an hour passed. People saw 
nothing save a long, low bank of darkness which, like 
a black fog, walled the view below, and joined the sky 
and river in the direction of Vicksburg. And all 
watched this gathering of blackness, for in it were thun- 
ders and lightnings and volcanoes wdiich at any instant 
might light up the night with fierce eruptions. 
At just quarter before eleven two bright, shacp lines of 
flame floated through the darkness at the extreme right 
of the Vicksburg batteries ; and in an instant the whole 
length of the bluffs was ablaze wdth fire. The fleet had 
rounded the Point, and now lay squarely before the city, 
and at once responded by opening their ports and pour- 
ing theirfull broadside of twenty-five heavy guns charged 
with grape and shrapnel directly against the city. 

"A great cloud of smoke rolled heavily over the gun- 
boats, and in this the transports entered and made their 
'fast time' downi the river. But the cotton bales on 
the Henri/ Clay took fire from a Confederate shell, and 
soon became a blazing mass as it floated down the 
stream until it disappeared below Warrenton." 



14G GUAST, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

The Vicksburg batteries were passed in one hour 
and a half, and the surprising feat Avas accomplished 
without the loss of a single life. 

When Porter had passed the batteries he took his 
fleet to a point near New Carthage, a run of only a few 
miles. But with only two transports and two barges 
below Vicksburg, General Grant could not transfer his 
army expeditiously from the west to the east side of the 
river, and therefore he decided to start a second fleet 
past the batteries, to consist of six steamers such as 
were common on the Mississippi, and twelve barges. 
The officers and crews were chosen almost wholly from 
the regiments then in camp at Milliken's Bend. Again, 
General Grant purposed not to ask anyone to accompany 
the fleet on account of the hazardousness of the under- 
taking. But the loyalty and courage of the volunteers 
were illustrated by the fact that many times more offi- 
cers and men tendered their services than the steamers 
could accommodate. 

The time fixed for the moving of the second fleet 
was on Wednesday night, April 22nd. A painful ex- 
pectation weighed on many hearts. There were no 
ironclad boats like Porter's Benton and Lafayette to 
guard the frail crafts or to give the volunteers who 
crowded the decks of the steamers a fair chance to save 
their lives. Generals Grant and Logan, with other 
officers and war correspondents, were sufficiently near 
on boats to observe the action of the fleet. 



TUE aREATEUT iHEOE IN UIHTORY H7 

The steamers were to rim ten or fifteen minutes 
apart. It was a little after ten o'clock when they took 
their positions in the line. Their engines were motion- 
less, and with an impressive solemnity the voyage began 
after the moon had set and darkness had covered the 
waters of the Mississippi. It was about twelve o'clock 
when the first steamer in the fleet was discovered by the 
upper batteries. Then the dead silence of the night 
was broken by the roar of the heaviest guns of the 
fortifications. The river was soon illuminated by the 
burning of old buildings. ''The batteries played heav- 
ily upon the transports, sending iron messengers after 
them when they had gotten fully two miles below the 
gims. 

"Every two or three minutes would come a lull; 
then the roar would deepen and the batteries w^ould 
crash through the night until the atmosphere and the 
land and the water shook. But slowly and quietly the 
boats moved down the river, and at half-past two o'clock 
in the morning the last of the fleet passed beyond the 
range of the batteries, and the night again became si- 
lent." Only one of the steamers was sunk, and seven 
of the barges which carried rations for the army passed 
by in safety. 

With about 20,000 men below Vicksburg, General 
Grant made his headquarters at Perkins' plantation, 
some eight or ten miles in a straight course below New 
Carthage. He soon learned that the only place on the 
east side of the river at which he could safely land his 



148 a RANT, THE 31 AN OF MYSTERY 

army was at Bruiiisburg, eight miles below Grand Gulf 
— the latter being heavily fortified. There were only 
two ways opened to the General by which he could ac- 
complish his purpose — either for Porter to silence the 
Grand Gulf batteries, in day time, or run the blockade 
with the gunboats and transports at night. 

On Wednesday morning, Ai3ril 29th, Porter brought 
his eight gunboats into service, and at close range began 
to hammer the enemy, but after five hours and a half 
of "as hard naval fighting as any that occurred during 
the war," not a single Confederate gun was silenced. 
P>ut the result did not discourage General Grant. In 
ii (piiet, confident tone he said to Porter: "I will run 
I ho batteries." And under tlie cover of night the Grand 
Gulf blockade was })assed by the entire fleet, composed 
of eight gunboats, seven ti'ansports, and several barges. 
2\ot a single life was lost in this perilous undertaking, 
and with all the fleet below the last of the enemy's bat- 
teries, General Grant was in a position to ferry his army 
to the ^[ississi])]n shore and begin the movement to 
])lace it in the rear of Vicksburg. 

In connection with this portioi of the Vicksburg 
caiiipaign is an incident of special value as it strikingly 
illustrates the military wisdom of General Grant. Gen- 
eral John A. McClernand, commander of the Thir- 
teenth Corps, was a brave ofiicer, but was numbered 
among the "political generals." He lacked the instinct 
of a true soldier, and his ambition Avas inordinate. 
.Vdmii'al Poi'ter savs that the General had so thorouffhlv 



THE GREATEST SIEGE I\ HISTORY 140 

iniii-atiated himself with President Lincohi that he 
made him believe that he was the only general who 
could compel the fall of Vicksburg. So successful was 
McCleniand in winning the confidence of the Adminis- 
tration, that in the autumn of 1862 the President had 
authorized him to go to Illinois and raise troops for the 
special purpose of capturing Vicksburg. Manv men 
were enlisted under his persuasive eloquence, and his 
command of the Vicksburg expedition early in the win- 
ter of 1863 seemed assured. But fortunately, through 
the patience, sagacity, and generalship of Grant, Mc- 
Clernand never obtained a higher position in the army 
than commander of the Thirteenth Corps. 

Tn the march of the army from Milliken's Bend to 
New Carthage General Grant gave McClernand the 
command of the right wing. As he was next in rank 
to himself he was entitled to this honor, all other things 
being equal ; but the officers of the army and navy dis- 
trusted McClernand. General Grant, however, was 
always kind and considerate, and in assigning officers 
to various commands in the march below Vicksburg, 
it was his purpose not to give McClernand the slightest 
reason to complain of ill-treatment by the commanding 
general. But notwithstanding General Grant's great 
strategic movements thus far in the Vicksburg cam- 
paign, the Administration seemed to be in a state of 
doubt as to his fitness to command; and perhaps 
McClernand was responsible for this peculiar condition 
of mind at Washington. 



150 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

When Admiral Porter was fighting the battle at 
Grand Gulf, three Commissioners were on board a tug 
with General Grant, witnessing the action. They Avere 
Elihu B. Washburne, member of Congress from the 
Galena (111.) district; Richard Yates, Governor of Illi- 
nois; and Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the 
United States Army. The Commissioners had per- 
sonally met McClernand at his headquarters, and were 
honored "with a grand review and a good luncheon with 
champagne." But there was no spirit of blandishment 
or sycophancy in General Grant, and he could furnish 
the Commissioners with no such entertainment. The 
best he could do was to give them a place on his tug- 
boat, from which they could witness the exhibition of 
naval firing, which, for desperation, liad been rarely 
paralleled in any war. 

The authority conferred on the Commissioners by 
President Lincoln was to inquire carefully into the 
affairs of the army commanded by General Grant, and 
if after such an inquisition they concluded that a 
change ought to be made, they might relieve the com- 
manding General and put McClernand in his place. 
Adjutant General Thomas took Admiral Porter into 
his confidence and told him that he brought with him 
from Washington a document which gave him authority 
to perform this service for the President. Porter asked 
whom he proposed to put in General Grant's place. 
Thomas answered: "That depends; McClernand is 
prominent." 



THE GREATEST 8IE0E IN HISTORY 151 

The Admiral replied: "Dou't let your plans get 
out, for if the army and navy should find out what these 
three gentlemen came here for, they would be tarred 
and feathered, and neither Grant nor myself could pre- 
vent it." ''Is it possible?" exclaimed Thomas. "But 
nothing has been done. We are delighted with what 
we have seen." 

When Adjutant General Thomas returned to Wash- 
ington he conferred with the President immediately, 
reported what they had seen and what they thought 
best not to do, and the document which provided for 
the removal of Grant went into the waste basket. Grant 
kept on fighting, in every instance victorious, but Mc- 
Clernand was disappointed of his hopes ; and only a few 
weeks later his enforced retirement from his command 
was a natural sequence. 




XXIII. 

THE WONDERS OF THE INVESTMENT OF 
VICKSBURG. 

X the 30th of April, 1863, McClernand's 
command and a portion of McPherson's 
corps made a landing on the east side of 
the Mississippi. Grand Gulf was immedi- 
ately abandoned by the Confederates, and for a short 
time General Grant made it his base of supplies. It 
was with astonishing rapidity that with an army of 
hardly more than 20,000 strong (Sherman's command 
not having arrived), and confronted by an enemy twice 
his own strength. General Grant began the land move- 
ment for the investment of Vicksburg. General G. F. 
R. Henderson, of the British army, emphasizes the fact 
in his Science of War that General Grant was the first 
to perceive that in a comparatively fertile country it 
w^as possible to subsist an army without magazines or 
a base of supplies; and was thereby able to invest 



WONDERl^ OF THE INVEt^TMEAT OF VICKSBURG 153 

Vicksburg, iiiarcliing completely around the place and 
defeating all the troops that opposed him. 

Of the beginning of this extraordinary movement, 
the Hon. E. B. Washburne says : "When Grant left his 
headquarters at Smith's plantation (a short distance 
above New Carthage on the Louisiana side) to enter 
on the greatest campaign in history, he did not take with 
him the trappings and paraphernalia so common among 
military men. All depended on the quickness of the 
movement. It was important that he should be encum- 
bered with as little baggage as possible. He took with 
him no orderly, nor horse, nor a servant, nor an over- 
coat, nor a camp chest, nor even a clean shirt. His 
entire baggage for the six days — I was with him at that 
time — was a tooth-brush! He fared like the com- 
monest soldier in his command, partaking of his ra- 
tions and sleeping on the ground with no covering ex- 
cept the canopy of heaven." 

The first battle in this inland campaign was fought 
at Port Gibson on Friday, May 1st. General Mc- 
Clernand's command was the first to strike the enemy, 
and sharp fighting lasted all the day; but when Mc- 
Pherson's corps came on the field the Confederates were 
compelled to retreat before a largely superior number. 
On the 8th of May General Grant was reinforced 
by two divisions from Sherman's command, which had 
remained above Vicksburg, this addition augmenting 
his strength to 32,000. With this force, in a flying 
campaign, he was to contend with Pemberton and Jo- 



154 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

sepli K. Johnston, whose united strength was estimated 
at from 40,000 to 50,000. In moving towards Jackson, 
tift,y miles cast of Vicksburg, General Grant purposely 
took a line of march which would make him clash with 
the enemy. As the farmer's wife spreads out her apron 
to drive a brood of chickens into a coop. General Grant 
decided to spread out his army around the rear of the 
enemy and shoo him into Vicksburg. It was an ad- 
mirable programme — never before heard of in war. 

On the 12th of May General McPherson inflicted a 
galling defeat on the enemy at Raymond. The army 
was moving eastward on different roads, under various 
subordinate commanders, and when General Grant 
heard of McPherson's victory, he threw as much of his 
force as could be spared on Jackson, the capital of the 
state. The attack was made on Tuesday, May 14th, 
but Johnston, shunning a conflict with General Grant, 
rapidly retreated northward. The Richmond Whig of 
May 18th, in a plaintive mood said : "The loss of Jack- 
son is a painful and disastrous event ; and for the pres- 
ent Grant is making things look ugly." 

With Johnston out of Jackson, and its factories for 
making military supplies in ashes. General Grant 
pushed a portion of his army to Champion's Hill, 
twenty miles west from the capital. Here, on the 16th 
of May, was fought the hardest and bloodiest battle con- 
nected with the movement against Vicksburg. Fifteen 
thousand federals were engaged, and the attack was so 
vigorous and persistent that Pemberton was compelled 



WONDERS OF THE INVESTMENT OF VWK8BURG 155 

to retreat to the Big Black river, only ten miles from 
the city which General Grant so much coveted. On 
Sunday, the I7th, the battle of Big Black was 
fought and won, eighteen cannon and 2,000 prisoners 
being captured. "When the battle was in progress," 
says the General, "an officer from Banks came up and 
presented me a letter from Halleck, dated May 11th. 
It had been sent by the way of New Orleans to Banks 
to be forwarded to me. It ordered me to return to 
Grand Gulf and to cooperate against Port Hudson, and 
then to return with our combined forces to besiege 
Vicksburg. I told the officer that the order came too 
late, and that Halleck would not give it now if he knew 
our position. The bearer of the dispatch insisted that I 
ought to obey the order, and was giving arguments to 
support his position, when I heard great cheering to 
the right of our line, and, looking in that direction, I 
saw General Lawler, in his shirt sleeves, leading a 
charge. I immediately mounted my horse and galloped 
in that direction, and saw no more of the officer who 
delivered the dispatch, I think not even to this day." 

The boldness of General Grant's manoeuvers is not 
more remarkable than the skill and good fortune with 
which he struck the forces of the enemy successively in 
detachments as they came in his way, and there was not 
a straggling battle among them. He kept his OAvn 
army in fighting trim and on the move almost day and 
night, and completely bewildered the enemy as well as 
defeated him in battle whether large or small. It was 



156 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

a culmination of successes of such splendor and com- 
bined such solid advantages — so various and important 
— that political thinkers and military critics, as well as 
the popular heart, were not only fascinated but roused to 
enthusiasm. 

In seventeen days from the time General Grant 
landed his troops below Vicksburg, he fought and won 
five battles, captured 27 heavy cannon, 61 pieces of 
artillery, and 6,000 prisoners. His own loss was only 
690 killed and 3,400 wounded. He marched over two 
hundred miles, and had so confused the Confederate 
commanders that they were unable to unite their forces 
thereafter. His whole movement was so thorough, em- 
phatic, and brilliant as to furnish a striking contrast 
to what was going on where the great army of the East 
was supposed to be moving. 

It was on the 18th of May, the day after Big 
Black, that the two comrades — Grant and Sherman — 
stood on Walnut Hills, northward from Vicksburg, 
overlooking the city. To Sherman the scene revived 
impressive, if not sad memories. He was looking down 
on the place at which he made his disastrous assault in 
the previous December. But now, confident that the 
city would fall, he could say with full satisfaction to 
Grant, "This ends one of the greatest campaigns in his- 
tory." And two weeks later, on the same hilltops, 
when several state officials from the North were visit- 
ing General Grant, in an animated conversation on the 
glories of the achievement, Sherman declared to them. 



MONDEHa OF THE INVESTMENT OF' VWKSBURG 157 

"Grant is entitled to every bit of the credit for this 
campaign. I opposed it ; I wrote him a letter about it." 
But General Grant was not to be outdone in frankness 
and fairness by his friend Sherman, and afterwards he 
wrote this acknowledgment from the fulness of his 
heart : ''But for this speech, it is not likely that Sher- 
man's opposition would have ever been heard of. His 
untiring energy and great efficiency during the cam- 
paign entitle him to a full share of all the credit due 
for its success. He could not have done more if the 
plan had been his own." 

One of the great crises of the war in the West was 
decided when Pemberton, with his 30,000 men, sought 
refuge behind the breastworks at Vicksburg. General 
Grant's steady, persistent marching and fighting from 
Port Gibson to Big Black, was to make the Confederate 
general seal his own fate by doing exactly what he did. 
Thus having got Pemberton where he could do no harm, 
General Grant immediately began to arrange his forces 
for the complete investment of the city. The line of 
defense which the Confederates were obliged to main- 
tain was seven miles long, and was in crescent form. 
The Union line of offense was between twelve and fif- 
teen miles in length, and stretched from Haines' Bluff 
on the north to a point south near Warrenton on the 
Mississippi. Gullies, deep ravines, steep hills, and 
other obstructions were so numerous that the approach 
of an invading army from the cast was made very diffi- 
cult. But as early as May 19th, before the city M^as 



158 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

fully invested, General Grant ordered an assault chiefly 
on the northern part of the line. The assault was made 
at this time on the supposition that after Pemberton's 
terrible defeat at Champion's Hill and Big Black, he 
could not make a strong defense. But in this move- 
ment General Grant was disappointed, as the only 
advantage secured was a more advanced position in a 
few places. The assaults on May 22nd were also with- 
out a compensating benefit, except perhaps that they 
established the fact that the only method by which the 
city could be captured with a minimum loss of life 
was the substitution of the pick and spade for the bayo- 
net. 

The reason for making the assault on the afternoon 
of the 22nd, for which General Grant has been severely 
and unjustly criticised, should receive a clearer explana- 
tion than is made in the Memoirs or by several of his 
biographers. 

The General was not satisfied with the assault on 
the 19th of May, and he determined to make a second 
attempt to break through the enemy's line of intrench- 
ments. The assault was ordered to be made at ten 
o'clock A. M. on the 22nd, in which the whole line, from 
north to south, should be engaged. "While the attack 
was a gallant one," says Grant, "and portions of each of 
three corps succeeded in getting up to the very parapets 
of the enemy, and in planting their battle-flags upon 
them, at no place were we able to enter." 

It was immediately after this assault was made that 



WONDElii^ OF THE INVEtiTMENT OF VWKSBURG 159 

General Graut lost hope of beiug able to achieve any 
satisfactory result by charging upon the enemy's works. 
But in a few minutes after the assault had been made, 
and while Generals Grant and Sherman were convers- 
ing on the situation of affairs, the former received a 
message from General McClernand, commanding the 
Thirteenth Corps, which said that his ^'troops had cap- 
tured the rebel parapet in his front, and that the flag 
of the Union was waving over the stronghold of Vicks- 
burg." In the same message he urged General Grant "to 
give orders to Sherman and McPherson to press their at- 
tacks on their respective fronts, lest the enemy should 
concentrate on him" (McClernand). But General 
Grant, who had previously reconnoitered McClernand's 
front, said to Sherman, "I don't believe a word of it." 
But General Sherman insisted that as the note was in 
McClernaud's handwriting, and therefore official, it 
must be credited, and he offered "to renew the assault at 
once with new troops." So insistent was McClernand 
for reinforcements that, a few minutes later, he sent a 
second note to General Grant, who, feeling that he could 
not ignore it, sent Quimby's division of the Seventeenth 
Corps, and Sherman and McPherson w^ere ordered to re- 
new the assault at three o'clock. Precisely at the hour 
and minute named by General Grant, the Fifteenth and 
Seventeenth Corps began the assault upon the enemy's 
works as a diversion in favor of McClernand. Furious 
charges were made at three distinct points; but mortal 
man could not stand before the storm of bullets wdiich 



160 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

came from the parapets, and the assault, so bloody, and 
so heroically made, was of no avail. 

These assaults revealed the fact that McClernand's 
note to General Grant that he had captured a rebel 
parapet and that the Union flag waved over the strong- 
hold of Vicksburg, was untrue. But wishing to justify 
his strange conduct on the afternoon of the 22ud, Mc- 
Clernand issued a proclamation to his corps, which was 
full of self -flattery and injustice to the other corps. 
In effect it charged that if Sherman and McPherson 
had obeyed General Grant's orders in making the as- 
sault, the enemy would not have been allowed to mass 
his forces against the Thirteenth Corps. The procla- 
mation was published in the St. Louis Democrat on the 
10th of June, and in the Memphis Bulletin on the l;3th ; 
and when copies reached the army before Vicksburg, 
General Grant sent the following dispatch to Halleck 
on June 19th: 

"I have found it necessary to relieve General McClernand, 
particularly at this time, for his publication of a congratulatory 
address calculated to create dissension and ill-feeling in the army. 
I should have relieved him long since for his general unfitness 
for his position." 

After the assault of the 22nd, the work of forcing 
Vicksburg to capitulate consisted of the routine of 
digging rifle pits by night and occupying them by day, 
with an occasional "scrap" with the enemy, pushing 
the lines closer and closer, and mining and countermin- 
ing, with now and then an explosion. It was weari- 
some work at best, and oftentimes ]3ainful, but the prize 



WONDERS OF THE INVESTMENT OF VICKSBURG 1«51 

was always in sight, and the army did not complain. 
In front of the enemy's fortifications were between 
40,000 and 50,000 Union troops, and along the twelve 
miles or more of rifle pits were planted 220 pieces of 
artillery. 

The most marvellous factor in this extraordinary 
military movement was General Grant himself. He 
stood alone in its bold conception ; and when he got all 
his troops in front of the enemy's Avorks, in his own 
quiet way he studied the operations from one end of 
the line to the other. He did not say much to the out- 
side world of what was going on within his lines. It 
was this personal characteristic of saying little and 
doing much that led President Lincoln to tell General 
Burnside that Grant was "a copious worker and fighter, 
but a meager writer and telegrapher." 

During the siege many incidents occurred daily 
^vhich illustrated General Grant's astonishing equipoise, 
confidence, and courage, and also the close personal at- 
tention he gave to numerous details. One of these inci- 
dents was given me by General Logan, which I use as a 
preface to his own conclusion at the time, regarding 
General Grant's faith in himself. In front of Logan's 
division some columbiads were being mounted, and 
General Grant desired to superintend the operation. 
During the preliminary work he mounted the epaule- 
raent, and, lieedless of the danger from the thickly fly- 
ing bullets and shells from the enemy's works, he calmly 
and slowly whittled at a rail until the guns were placed 



162 ORANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

in a position to suit him. It was such a surprising ex- 
hibition of self-control and courage that General Logan 
added : "It did seem to me from this incident, and from 
the ease and confidence with which he planned and di- 
rected that whole campaign, that if Lincoln had said to 
him : Tut downi the rebellion in twelve months/ Grant 
would not have hesitated to take the contract !" 

1^0 unwalled city could long endure the hardsliip 
and hopelessness of such a siege. From the mortar 
boats bombs and shells flew with hideous shrieking 
through the night air, bursting over the homes of the 
terrified inhabitants. Day after day and night after 
night General Grant tightened his grip on the city by 
pressing his lines closer and closer to the fortifications, 
Pemberton's position was hopeless from the start, but 
he did not seem to see the inevitable hour until after 
six weeks, when his people began to plead for bread 
and he had completely lost all power to make further 
defense. 

It was on Friday morning, July 3d, when, in a sul- 
len state of mind, Pemberton sent a flag of truce 
to General Grant, asking the appointment of commis- 
sioners to arrange terms of surrender. But the Gen- 
oral did not favor this proposal, and for good reason. 
Of course he advised with his generals, but with the 
reservation that he must hold in his own hand the right 
of deciding upon the terms on which the surrender 
should be made. As he had been held personally re- 
sponsible for victory or defeat in every campaign in 



W0NDEB8 OF THE INVESTMENT OF VWK8BURG 163 

which he was chief in command since he entered the 
volunteer army, he determined to stand by his own con- 
victions. And perhaps the old saying that councils 
of war never fight, suggested to him that neither com- 
missioners nor a council would in any way change his 
mind. 

Hardly any two accounts agree in all the details 
relating to the meeting of Generals Grant and Pember- 
ton. It was an impressive, as well as a momentous 
hour; and it is difficult to determine which account is 
entitled to the most credit. But as the correspondent 
of the Cincinnati Commercial was an eye-witness to the 
scene, and was regarded as a faithful chronicler, I quote 
three paragraphs from him. General Grant having 
declined to accept Pemberton's proposition to appoint 
commissioners, as well as to call a council of war, the 
correspondent says : 

"General Pemberton then requested a personal in- 
terview, which was permitted by Grant at three o'clock 
Friday afternoon. The latter with his staff appeared 
on the hills where our advance works were. Here they 
halted. Pemberton was accompanied by General 
Bowen and Colonel Montgomery. On the crest of the 
opposite hills were rifle pits and forts crowded with 
men. In the spaces in a grove of fruit trees met the 
contending heroes. Thousands of soldiers looked upon 
this strange scene. Two men who had been lieutenants 
in Mexico, now met as foes with all the world looking 
upon them. 



164 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

"Colonel Montgomery spoke : 'General Grant, Gen- 
eral Pemberton.' They shook hands politely. But it 
was evident that Pemberton was mortified. He said : 
'When I was at Monterey and Bnena Vista, we had 
terms and conditions there.' 

"Grant then took him aside. They sat down on the 
grass and talked for more than an hour. Grant smoked 
all the time and Pemberton played with the grass and 
pulled leaves; and finally Grant agreed to parole the 
Confederates, allowing each officer to take his horse.""* 

The details of the conversation between the con- 
queror and the vanquished foe will probably never be 
fully known. Xo biographer of General Grant and 
no member of his military family heard a word of what 
passed between them; and neither the General nor 



♦Author's Note : — In my journal of Friday evening July 3d, 1863, 
I made the following note . . . "At 8 o'clock this morning hun- 
dreds of rebels were seen standing on their fortifications. Both armies 
laid down their arms. About noon I went with part of my company 
(H. 33d Wis.) near the enemy's fort, which was hardly more than 200 
yards from our line, and there the blue and the gray chatted pleas- 
antly for a full hour. The meeting was so unrestrained and ami- 
cable as to make the scene exceedingly interesting and touching as 
well. My boys gave the contents of their haversacks to the rebels 
whom they had been fighting for nearly forty days and nights, and 
the defenders of the city deeply appreciated the kindness." 

And on Saturday the 4th : "This has been a day of great excite- 
ment. The morning dawned with as much quietness as if it were 
Sunday in the North. How strange it seemed, this silence after such 
a long and roaring siege ! White flags were raised upon every Con- 
federate fort. In the morning a national salute was fired with blank 
cartridge by all the cannon on the line, and continued for some time. 
And what a roar of thunder ! If all the artillery of heaven had com- 
bined In one grand outburst of sound it could not have surpassed 
this salute at Vicksburg. Perhaps nothing equal to it was ever heard 
before or will ever be heard again on any battlefield." 



WONDERS OF THE INVESTMEM OF VICKSBURG 165 

Pemberton ever made public any part of the conversa- 
tion. 

The dread of going North, and the fear of harsh 
treatment, are said to have deterred the Confederates 
from capitulating earlier in the siege. The exercise of 
magnanimity and charity was as natural to General 
Grant as breathing; and he demonstrated on this occa- 
sion that the hand that wielded the sword was moved by 
kindness as well as by patriotism. The prisoners of war, 
who so long lived in hunger, now received abundant ra- 
tions. So much kindness was shown them that when the 
Union troops entered the city, both sides "fraternized as 
if they had been fighting for the same cause." And 
when the Confederates passed out of town between two 
lines of Federal soldiers, the scene was solemn and pa- 
thetic. Under instruction from General Grant, not a 
cheer or a word came from the conquerors that would 
humilitate the fallen foe or give them pain. 

When the terms of surrender were agreed upon, 
General Grant displayed no pride of feeling. His de- 
meanor on the 4th was remarkably modest. Instead of 
receiving the surrender of the army and the city in 
person, he bestowed that conspicuous honor upon Gen- 
eral McPherson, his youngest corps commander. On 
that auspicious day General Grant rode into the city 
and witnessed the raising of the stars and stripes on the 
court house, by the Forty-fifth Illinois. 

While the news of the surrender was hailed with 
joyful acclaim and with one universal cheer for the 



166 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

victor, it is interesting and impressive to turn from the 
pomp and circumstance of a great victory to an incident 
that reveals the character of the real Grant, which I give 
as Admiral Porter records it : "When the Union flag was 
hoisted on the ramparts of Vicksburg, my flagship and 
every vessel of the fleet steamed up or down the river 
to the levee before the city. We discovered a dust in 
the distance, and in a few moments Grant, at the head 
of nearly all his generals with their staffs, rode up to 
the gangAvay, and dismounting, came on board. That 
was a happy meeting, a great hand-shaking and general 
congratulations. . . . There was one man in the 
party who preserved the same quiet demeanor that he 
always bore whether in adversity or in victory, and that 
was General Grant. No one, to see him sitting there 
with that calm exterior, amidst all the jollity, and with- 
out any staff, would ever have taken him for the great 
general who had accomplished one of the most stu- 
pendous military feats on record. 

"There was a quiet satisfaction in his face that could 
not be concealed, but he behaved on that occasion as if 
nothing of importance had occurred. He was the only 
one in that assemblage who did not touch the simple 
wine offered him. He contented himself with a cigar ; 
and let me say here that this was his habit during all 
the time he commanded before Vicksburg, and also 
while he commanded before Richmond." 

In the great shower of congratulatory messages 
which came to the General immediately after the siege, 



WONDERS OF THE INVESTMENT OF VICKSBURO 167 

the one which impressed him most was sent bj Presi- 
dent Lincoln, It was dated at Washington, July 16th, 
1863, the full text of which is given: 

"My Dear General: I do not remember that you and I 
ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledg- 
ment for the almost inestimable services you have done the 
country. 

"I wish to say further: When you reached the vicinity of 
Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did — march 
the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, 
and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except a general 
hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition 
and the like would succeed. 

"When you got below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and 
vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen- 
eral Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the Big 
Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a personal 
acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong." 

The capture of Vicksburg included 29,500 men, 172 
cannon, and 60,000 muskets ; and probably never before 
was so great a victory won at so small a cost of life. But 
the capture of men and guns did not count most in this 
victory. The moral effect was almost immeasurable. 
The whole country felt the inspiriting event. The re- 
bellion in the West had reached its crisis. General Ed- 
ward P. Alexander of the Confederate army thought 
the Vicksburg campaign the most brilliant strategy of 
the whole war. Other battles were to be fought and 
won; but it was from Vicksburg that the Confederacy 
heard the crack of doom. 




XXIV. 

CHICKAMAUGA IS AVENGED AT 
CHATTANOOGA. 

ENERAL GRANT spent a few weeks at 
Vicksburg after the surrender, ostensibly to 
take rest, which he so much needed, but 
during this temporary relief from field 
duty he found time to make mental maps of the situa- 
tion eastward and southward. It was during this re- 
laxation from the immediate charge of a campaign 
that he was commissioned a major general in the 
regular army, which greatly enlarged his powers and 
vastly increased his responsibility. At that time he de- 
sired to organize an expedition against Mobile, capture 
the city, and place that section of the South under 
Federal control ; but such a campaign seemed im- 
I practicable to Halleck and Stanton, who interposed an 
\ objection which proved a serious blunder and was a 
sore disappointment to General Grant. 

During the latter part of August, 1863, the General 



CHWKAMAVGA IS AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 169 

went to New Orleans for the purpose of conferring with 
General Banks, and returning from a review of the 
troops near Carrolton, a few miles from the city, his 
horse became frightened at a passing locomotive, and he 
was thrown to the ground with such violence as to ren- 
der him unconscious for several hours. The General 
was placed in a hotel, where he remained over a week, 
his suffering much of the time being almost beyond 
endurance. He was finally taken to Vicksburg by boat, 
where he remained helpless for many days. 

While the General was confined to his bed in ISTew 
Orleans, Halleck telegraphed him to send reinforce- 
ments to Rosecrans, who was operating against Bragg 
in Tennessee and northern Georgia. Telegraphic com- 
munication between Washington and New Orleans was 
in such a wretched condition that the dispatches were 
delayed two weeks, and in the meantime the battle be- 
tween Bragg and Rosecrans had been fought at Chicka- 
mauga (Sept. 19-20), and the Union forces were driven 
into Chattanooga. 

The loss of the battle caused a demoralization of 
Rosecrans' army. Both Lincoln and Halleck were 
nearly frantic at the situation of affairs at Chattanooga, 
as Bragg was threatening to besiege the city. A great 
battle must yet be fought. The question uppermost in 
the mind of everybody who understood the perilous 
condition of the army was : "Who must fight and win 
the battle?" Rosecrans could not be considered, be- 



170 QRA'ST, TEE MAN OF MYSTERY 

cause his usefulness as a commander ended at Chicka- 
mauga. 

Circumstances demanded a new leader. Washing- 
ton was looking to General Grant. He had genius and 
nerve, which could not be said of any other commander 
of a department. He was a tonic to the people and to 
the Administration. Chattanooga must be saved, be- 
cause it was the gateway to the sea. So thoroughly did 
the Administration begin to believe in General Grant, 
that, while at Vicksburg, unable to walk without assist- 
ance, he received this significant message from Halleck : 
"It is the wish of the Secretary of War that as soon as 
General Grant is able he will come to Cairo and report 
by telegraph." As early as possible he departed for 
Cairo, and on the I7tli of October he received a dispatch 
at Cairo directing him to repair to Louisville, the route 
being by rail by the way of Indianapolis. 

The confidence of Lincoln and Stanton in Grant as 
a succor in time of trouble is splendidly illustrated in 
the fact that when he reached Indianapolis and took the 
train for Louisville, he met the Secretary of War, and 
together they proceeded to that city. Stanton had gone 
all the way from Washington to the West to have a per- 
sonal interview with the General. They had never met 
before. When on the train, the Secretary gave Grant 
two documents of vital import. They created the mili- 
tary division of the Mississippi, giving Grant the com- 
mand of the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, 
and the Tennessee, the largest individual command in 



CHICKAMAUGA 18 AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 171 

the army, and including all the territory from the Alle- 
ghenies to the Mississippi north of the limits of Banks' 
command. There was only this difference in the docu- 
ments— "one left the department commanders as they 
were, while the other relieved Kosecrans and assigned 
Thomas to his place." 

Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana was at 
Chattanooga immediately after the battle of Chicka- 
mauga; and from that point he telegraphed General 
Grant at Louisville to the effect that unless prevented, 
Rosecrans would retreat, and he advised the issuing of 
peremptory orders against such a movement. Thomas, 
whom Garfield called the "Rock of Chickamauga," and 
who saved the left wing of the army from destruction 
in that battle, was considered by General Grant the 
safer general in time of great emergency, and therefore 
he gave him the command of the Cumberland. 

No general in the army was less influenced by preju- 
dice than General Grant. Considering the large num- 
ber of subordinates of widely varying temperaments 
and opinions with whom he was associated, very few 
forfeited his confidence or incurred his displeasure. It 
was natural in him to overlook unintentional errors, but 
he could not condone inexcusable blunders. At one 
time he became impatient because of the weakness of 
one of his generals, and he asked the authorities at 
Washington to relieve the officer "until all danger had 
passed." It was this feeling of distrust toward Rose- 



172 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

crans that led General Grant to prefer Thomas when a 
great battle was inevitable. 

When General Grant and Secretary Stanton ar- 
rived at Louisville, the former sent to Thomas the 
notable message: "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards. 
I will be there as soon as possible." The brave soldier 
who had been the rock of defense on the left at Cliicka- 
mauga, flashed back the inspiriting answer: "We will 
hold the town till we starve." Although General 
Grant was yet in a crippled condition, his purpose to 
relieve Chattanooga at the earliest day possible was as 
determined as his courage and physical endurance were 
sublime; and on the 20th of October, 1863, he started 
for the besieged city where the soldiers were facing 
starvation. 

It was a strange sight, and deeply pathetic, to see 
General Grant, painfully lame, feeble from weeks of 
great suffering, hurried off to Chattanooga, to amend — 
so far as such a thing was within human power — the 
blunder of the War Department in having made it 
necessary to fight the ill-fated battle of Chickamauga. 
'No one in the West, or in Washington for that matter, 
had so clear a conception of the most effective way of 
crippling the Confederacy in the West and South as 
General Grant. As it has already been intimated, he 
had his military eye on Mobile. He had studied thor- 
oughly the situation in all parts of the West and South. 
He believed firmly that the next best movement of his 
well-organized Vicksburg army was to attack Mobile 



CHWKAMAVGA IS AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 173 

with the cooperation of the navy. This would compel 
Bragg to withdraw his forces from Tennessee and north- 
ern Georgia for the defense of Mobile, and there he 
would entrap himself as Pemberton had done at Vicks- 
burg. But as clear and practical as was this movement, 
he was overruled by Halleck and Stanton, and the army 
which did such splendid service in the great siege was 
scattered hither and thither, and a part of the penalty 
of this shortsightedness of the War Office was the inglo- 
rious defeat at Chickamauga. 

It was far in the night when General Grant reached 
Xashville, but before retiring he sent important orders 
to Sherman at Eastport, to Admiral Porter at Cairo, 
to Burnside, who was hemmed in at Knoxville, and to 
Thomas at Chattanooga. No mistake of Kosecrans, no 
difficulty at Chattanooga, no impairment of the facili- 
ties by which the besieged army in that city could be 
rationed clouded his conception of how the campaign 
against Bragg could be successfully conducted. "It 
was the small man on crutches" against the astute and 
robust Bragg and his beleaguering army. 

Chattanooga is one hundred miles south-east of 
;N'ashville. The nearest railway point to Chattanooga 
was Bridgeport, forty miles west. General Grant rode 
that distance mostly on horseback, and when it became 
dangerous for him to cross overflowing streams or wash- 
outs, soldiers carried their uncomplaining commander 
in their arms. It was a journey of forty miles over 
many dangerous passages, particularly over the moun- 



174 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

tains, but not discouraged by hardships nor overcome by 
physical debility, he pushed on to Chattanooga and 
reached General Thomas on the evening of Octo- 
ber 23rd. 

General O. O. Howard, who had been ordered from 
the East with the Eleventh corps to take part in the 
impending battle, met General Grant at Bridgeport, 
and records this impression of him : "As I stepped into 
the forward part of the car, General Grant, sitting 
near the rear end, was pointed out to me, and I passed 
on at once to pay my respects. Imagine my surprise 
when I saw him. He had been for some time before 
the public the successful commander in important 
battles; the newspapers had said much for him, and 
several virulent sheets had said much against him ; and 
so, judging by the accounts, I had conceived him to be of 
very large size and of rough appearance. The actual 
man was quite different; not larger than McClellan, 
at that time rather thin in flesh, and pale in complexion, 
and noticeably self-constrained and retiring. . . . 

"The General and I shared a wall tent between us. 
He had a humorous expression which I noticed as his 
eye fell upon a liquor flask hanging against the tent 
wall. That flask is not mine,' I quickly said. 'It was 
left here by an officer to be returned to Chattanooga. 
I never drink.' 'Neither do I,' was his prompt reply ; 
and the reply was not in sport." 

When General Grant arrived at Chattanooga he 
found a deplorable state of affairs ; but his presence soon 



J 



CHWKAMAUOA 18 AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 175 

caused the dejected army to brace up and take courage. 
The men seemed to take it for granted that wherever 
the General went, food and victory soon followed. The 
facilities for rationing the army were lamentable, the 
soldiers living in almost constant hunger. He put vigor 
in his effort to open the "cracker line"from Nashville 
to Chattanooga, and in five days after his arrival, the 
troops were praising God and cheering their new com- 
mander for the abundance of good rations. 

In a valley on the south side of the Tennessee river 
lies Chattanooga. Eastward from the city is Mission- 
ary Kidge, rising 500 or 600 feet above the river, and 
running in a southerly direction. Southwestward is 
Lookout Mountain, 2,400 feet high, jutting insolently 
almost against the river. From its summit six or seven 
states can be seen by the aid of field glasses. Upon 
part of the summit of Lookout Mountain, as upon 
Missionary Kidge, the enemy was well intrenched, 
Bragg having occupied both ranges immediately after 
Rosecrans passed them by in his retreat from Chick- 
amauga. Between the Eidge and the Mountain is 
Orchard Knob, then a steep, craggy knoll, 100 feet 
high, and this also was held by the enemy. Thus, with 
a force of 40,000 or 50,000 men Bragg had fortified 
the east, south, and west, a distance of twelve miles, 
which placed the little city in the valley of the Cumber- 
land in a besieged condition, and to all appearance, at 
the mercy of the enemy. 

This was the situation of affairs on the arrival of 



176 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

General Grant, October 23rd. But despite his physical 
exhaustion, he had been formulating plans for some 
days for fighting one of the most dramatic and pic- 
turesque battles of the war. There was something in- 
spiring in General Grant's masterly organization and 
command of the army at Chattanooga. He was not only 
the master of the whole field, but he was master of all 
his powers. He brought Sherman and his troops by a 
forced march from luka, 200 miles away. Instinctively 
he knew to what use he could put Sherman, when on the 
15th of November he reached the north side of the 
Tennessee facing Missionary Ridge. Hooker's two 
corps, the Eleventh and Twelfth, under the command 
of Howard and Slocum respectively, were transplanted 
from the Potomac to the front of Lookout Mountain, 
twelve hundred miles in seven days, and formed the 
right wing of the army in the coming battle. Thomas 
was in the center with the Army of the Cumberland. 
With him General Grant established headquarters, and 
from this position he commanded the movement of an 
army of 60,000 which confronted the enemy's line of 
twelve miles. 

Bragg was so well fortified at every point in front 
of the Union forces that Jefferson Davis, standing on 
the heights of Lookout Mountain a few days before the 
battle, beheld with a feeling of pride which he could 
not conceal, the magnificent scene before him. He 
saw the Federal army at his feet, as it were; and in 
his mind it could not scale the Ridge nor the Mountain, 



CHWKAMAUGA IS AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 177 

ijor pass southward between them ; and turning to Bragg 
he said the army could not escape capture or destruction. 
Looking through Confederate glasses it certainly seemed 
that any attempt of General Grant to carry the Eidge 
and Mountain fortifications would result in an over- 
whelming defeat. 

Whether Bragg was encouraged by the words of 
Mr. Davis or prompted by a spirit of bluster is not 
material, but on the 20th of November he sent the fol- 
lowing note of warning to General Grant under a flag 
of truce: "As there may still be some non-combatants 
in Chattanooga, I deem it proper to notify you that 
prudence would dictate their early withdrawal." 
General Brown, the bearer of the note, was confident 
enough to say that he was willing and ready to stake 
the fate of the Confederacy on the single battle at 
Chattanooga, and in this statement he no doubt ex- 
pressed the sentiment of Bragg. But this was as sound- 
ing brass to General Grant. He smiled when he read the 
note, and putting it in his pocket without making any 
reply, proceeded with a plan of battle which would 
insure the safety of all non-combatants in the city. 

General Grant at Chattanooga is a study of special 
interest. He was there at the urgent request of Presi- 
dent Lincoln and Secretary Stanton. In fact, he was 
there to retrieve the "flood of ruin" by which Bragg 
caused the right wing of Kosecrans' army to be swept 
from the field of Chickamauga. Perhaps more than at 
any other time thus far in the Civil War, the eye of 



178 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

the nation was fociissed npon General Grant. His re- 
sponsibility was enormous. The difficulties before him 
seemed almost insurmountable. Could he meet the ex- 
pectation of the people and the government? x\t 
Donelson, his forethought, dash and courage won the 
first decisive battle of the war. At Shiloh, his terrible 
will, determined purpose, and astonishing physical and 
mental endurance saved his army from defeat on Sun- 
day, which made victory certain on Monday. At 
Vicksburg, his genius, strategy, and persistence made 
the siege foremost among all the successful operations 
of the kind in the world's history. Could he forge an- 
other link to the chain of victories by wanning at 
Chattanooga? Some wonderful generalship must be 
displayed and miraculous fighting done to save his army 
from defeat, and the nation from disappointment. 
Was General Grant the man above all others to com- 
mand the w^estern army at such a supreme moment ? 

The battle of Chattanooga began on Monday, 
November 23rd, 1863. General Grant's station Avas 
at Fort Wood, a short distance northw^ard from Orchard 
Knob. He and Thomas made a reconnoissance, and 
on that day the center line, of which Thomas was in 
command, moved forward, and without much loss cap- 
tured Orchard Knob which overlooked the enemy's 
rifle pits, and from this point General Grant directed 
the battle to its finish. On the 24th Sherman, upon 
whom it is said fell the weight of the battle, crossed to 
the south side of the Tennessee, and by nightfall had 



CHICKAMAUGA IS AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 179 

taken his position at the lower edge of the north end of 
Missionary Ridge. On the same day the gallant 
Hooker assaulted the west side of the lofty, rugged, and 
precipitous Lookout Mountain. The men advanced 
steadily — not much in order — but with a determination 
to reach the crest of Lookout. Fog covered the moun- 
tain part of the day, but this did not lessen the zeal nor 
impede the progress of Hooker's forces. They advanced 
courageously up the deeply furrowed slope, and pushing 
through misty rain and dark clouds, by nightfall the 
Union flag was carried to the top of the mountain. The 
persistent climbing and firing of Hooker's men started 
the enemy on a retreat. Many prisoners were taken, and 
the fifty cannon Rosecrans lost at Chickamauga, and 
twelve pieces beside, were captured. It was a unique 
battle, and little wonder that Quartermaster General 
Meigs, who witnessed the gallantry of the mountain 
climbers as much as the dense fog would permit, called 
it "the battle above the clouds." 

The wise and invincible Sherman, in whom General 
Grant's confidence was never misplaced, had a hard 
task before him. The climbing of the north end of 
Missionary Ridge, while not as rough as the west side 
of Lookout Mountain, was nevertheless difficult because 
the enemy was massing all his available forces against 
him. For Bragg to lose the Ridge was to lose every- 
thing; therefore the hardest pressing Sherman ever had 
in battle was at Missionary Ridge. On Tuesday, the 
24th, it seemed as if he were being strained beyond the 



180 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYHTERY 

power of endurance to hold his own, but General Grant's 
eye was on Sherman, and to make his position secure for 
the day, Howard, with his Eleventh corps, was dis- 
patched to his assistance. 

At midnight on Tuesday, after giving the situation 
thorough study. General Grant began to issue orders for 
the battle on Wednesday — the fatal day to Bragg. 
When Hooker secured the top of Lookout Mountain, 
Bragg withdrew his troops during the night and formed 
a new line on Missionary Ridge. From Orchard Knob 
General Grant could plainly see the purpose of Bragg, 
which was to mass his forces against Sherman. The 
larger part of Hooker's men being no longer needed 
on Lookout Mountain were ordered to cross Chattanooga 
Valley and join the right of the Union forces in a 
grand assault on Missionary Ridge, but the loss of a 
bridge on which Hooker was to cross Chattanooga Creek 
delayed him three hours. 

The complex plan of the battle which General 
Grant had made, had thus far been executed with re- 
markable exactness. Every movement of the enemy 
had been closely watched from Orchard Knob. His 
anxiety was increased because of Hooker's delay. 
Sherman was being hard pushed. Column after column 
was being hurled against him. The overwhelming 
mass of Confederates in his front, and the concentrated 
fire of their guns, made his position exceedingly trying 
and doubtful. But despite all this Grant was holding 
his own. He saw clearly what was going on. 



CHICKAMAVGA 18 AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 181 

There is a moment in every great battle which de- 
termines the victory. It was three o'clock in the after- 
noon. General Grant could no longer wait for Hooker. 
Bragg had done what the General expected him to do — 
weakened his center to crush Sherman. It was time 
to hurl the thunderbolt. At the signal of six guns, 
20,000 Union men moved majestically forward to 
Missionary Ridge. The lower rifle pits of the enemy 
were carried. But there was one feature of General 
Grant's magnificent plan in fighting the battle that mis- 
carried. When the charge had been made on the pits, 
it was his purpose to have the troops reform preparatory 
to the general charge up the Ridge. But when the pits 
were captured each man seemed to be his own com- 
mander. Inspired by the success at the base of the 
Ridge the men rushed onward without order in the 
face of destructive fire from the enemy's batteries. 
When General Grant saw this marvellous exhibition of 
courage and determination he ordered the right and the 
left to move forward. Then all semblance of lines 
was lost ; each of the brigades was broken into some half 
a dozen groups headed by a flag, and everyone struggling 
to reach the summit. Phil Sheridan commanded a 
division, and while storming the Ridge his horse was 
shot; and according to tradition the General mounted 
a captured cannon to give him elevation that he might 
see what his men were doing. All along the craggy 
slope of the Ridge was a hand-to-hand conflict, and the 



182 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

roar of the cannon from both sides added to the ex- 
citement and sublimity of the hour. 

During this stirring scene Grant and Thomas were 
standing together on Orchard Knob. The assaulting 
column had reached half-way to the summit of 
Missionary Ridge when a portion of it was momentarily 
brought to a halt. The stream of wounded began to 
retire down the hill which made the broken line look 
ragged and weak. "At that moment Thomas turned to 
General Grant, and in a voice which betrayed the emo- 
tion that raged within him, said: 'General, I — I'm 
afraid they won't get up.' Grant, with calmness, gazed 
at the column, and then brushing the ashes from the end 
of his cigar, said quietly, 'Oh, give 'em time, General,' 
and then as coolly returned his cigar to his mouth. Tlie 
men got there." 

The enemy could not long withstand the terrible 
assault of the Union forces, and finally the summit of 
Missionary Ridge, extending five or six miles, was 
reached. The only course left open to Bragg was to 
retreat, and to Dalton he fled, not only in disgust, but 
in grief, with his army broken into fragments, and 
leaving behind him 6,500 prisoners, 47 pieces of can- 
non, and 7,000 muskets. 

General Sherman's account of his own persistent 
attacks at Missionary Ridge is of peculiar interest, be- 
cause it forcibly illustrates one quality of Grant's 
generalship — that of "continually hammering the 
enemy," as he himself calls it — and which made him 



CHICKAMAUOA IS AVENGED AT CHATTANOOGA 183 

SO successful in winning battles. Once Sliernaan said 
to General James F. Rusling : 

"At Chattanooga I was ordered to attack Bragg's 
right, and I did so with all my force, but soon found the 
ground impassable, and was repulsed. I was ordered 
to attack again, and did with like result ; and halted for 
orders. These came, 'attack again,' and I thought the 
old man daft and sent a staff officer to inquire if there 
wasn't a mistake, but his reply was 'No! Attack as 
ordered !' And I did, vehemently ; and simultaneously, 
he hurled Thomas and Sheridan against Bragg's center, 
piercing and crushing it, and rolling his wings both 
ways, and the campaign was ended, l^ow what Grant 
did was this; by my attacks so often on my left, he 
made Bragg believe our main attack was to be there, and 
so he weakened his center to reinforce his right, and 
when Grant 'divined' he had done this sufficiently, he 
hurled Thomas forward as a battering ram and smashed 
him completely. It was a great victory — the neatest 
and cleanest battle I was ever in, and Grant deserves 
the credit of it all." 

l^either the spirit of boastfulness nor a tone of 
personal triumph was ever discernible in any dispatch 
or letter 'written by General Grant announcing a great 
victory. He seemed to write and speak as if his sur- 
prising successes came in the natural train of events. 
After the battle of Chattanooga the cheering news of 
the result was contained in the following modest dis- 
patch to Washington: "Although the battle (on 



184 GRA'MT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Wednesday) lasted from early dawn till dark this even- 
ing, I believe I am not premature in announcing a com- 
plete victory over Bragg. Lookout Movmtain top, all 
the rifle pits in Chattanooga Valley and on Missionary 
Ridge entire, have been captured and are now held by 
us." 

The last few hours of the battle furnished a scene 
which, for grandeur, was never before beheld on this 
continent. "The whole army was swept onward by an 
irresistible impulse." The victory was more complete 
than the ablest and most thoughtful military men could 
hope for. And Halleck — always sparing in his words 
of commendation of General Grant — was so warmed up 
by the victory as to say that considering the strength of 
the enemy's position, which seemed to be impregnable, 
and the difficulty of storming his intrenchments, "the 
battle of Chattanooga must be regarded the most re- 
markable in history." 

General Grant increased in strength as he grew in 
experience, and he so planned and fought at Chatta- 
nooga as to make the laurels of Shiloh and Vicksburg 
fade in the splendor of the achievement. 



lie. j 




XXV. 

PUBLIC HONORS COME TO GRANT AFTER 
THE BATTLES. 

HE thundering sound of cannon and the 
cheers of the victorious army at Chatta- 
nooga had hardly died away when General 
Grant sent Sherman to Knoxville — eighty- 
four miles away — to relieve Burnside who was besieged 
by Longstreet with a force of 15,000 men. Sherman 
acted with his habitual promptness, and his cavalry 
reached Burnside on the 3rd of December, the very day 
on which the last ration was issued. Longstreet being 
driven from Tennessee, retreated into Virginia to join 
the forces of Lee. 

When President Lincoln heard that Burnside — for 
whose safety he had much solicitude — had been saved 
from the power of the enemy, he sent General Grant the 

following dispatch on the 8th of December : 

"Understanding that your lodgment at Knoxville and at 
Chattanooga is now sure, I wish to tender you, and all under 



186 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

your command, my more than thanks — my profoundest gratitude 
— for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which you and 
they, over so great difficulties, have effected that important 
object. God bless you all." 

The country was full of joy over the victory of 
Chattanooga. Congress adopted a resolution of thanks 
and voted that a gold medal be struck and presented to 
General Grant in the name of the people of the United 
States of America. Several states also adopted resolu- 
tions of thanks ; and the citizens of Jo Daviess county, 
Illinois, of which Galena was the General's home town, 
presented to him a diamond hilted sword, afterwards 
known as the "Chattanooga sword." The scabbard is 
of gold, and bears the names of all the battles which 
Grant had fought up to that time. 

During the latter part of January, 1864, the 
General obtained a leave of absence for the purpose of 
visiting his son Frederick, who lay dangerously ill at 
St. Louis. "Fred" was the eldest son, who, at thirteen 
accompanied his father on the Vicksburg campaign and 
displayed remarkable soldierly qualities at that time, 
particularly at the bloody battle of Champion's Hill. 
The boy rode a horse, and, like his father, was un- 
terrified by the volley of bullets or the roar of cannon. 
While on this visit to his son, the General was requested 
by the War Department to keep his headquarters with 
him, and whether in the sickroom, or at the hotel, or in 
the banquet hall, he kept his mind on all matters per- 
taining to his army, and was able to hold communica- 



PUBLIC HONORS COME AFTER THE BATTLES 187 

tion with bis commanders with as much readiness as if 
he were at his new headquarters at Nashville. 

Frederick's condition was greatly improved during 
his father's brief visit ; but as to what occurred before 
the General returned to Nashville the Memoirs are 
silent. No matter whether he was in the midst of a 
great campaign or at a function given in his honor, the 
General could not lay aside his extreme modesty. The 
name of "U. S. Grant, Nashville," on the Lindell Hotel 
register was sufficient to spread the news of his presence 
with almost the rapidity of wildfire throughout the 
city. The Lindell lobby was soon thronged with people 
eager to catch a glimpse of the little man who had won 
the battle of Chattanooga. The streets which he paced 
in vain, time and again, only five years before in search 
of employment, now resounded with cheers in his honor. 
On Friday evening, January 29th, General Grant 
was honored by an enthusiastic populace with a sere- 
nade. When he appeared on the balcony of the hotel 
he was greeted with tremendous applause. Taking off 
his hat and bowing, a profound silence reigned. It was 
supposed that he would say something about the drama- 
tic battle at Chattanooga, and the vast multitude was 
eager to catch a glimpse of the little man who had won 
"I thank you for this honor. I cannot make a speech. 
It is something I have never done and never intend to 
do, and I beg you excuse me." He then took a cigar 
from his pocket, and lighting it in the presence of the 
great throng, he smoked his Havana with as much 



188 GRANT, THE MA^' OF MYSTERY 

modesty as if it were only one of the common lot who 
had assembled to witness the beautiful pyrotechnic dis- 
play. Cheer after cheer being given him, Judge Lord 
placed his hand on the General's shoulder and said : 
"Tell them you can fight for them but can't talk for 
them." But the General modestly answered: "I will 
have to get someone else to say that for me" ; and with 
that remark he retired from the scene. 

The county and city which, a few years before, re- 
fused to give him the office of engineer, now tendered 
him a banquet which was given on the same evening on 
which occurred the public demonstration at the Lindell 
Hotel. Most of the two hundred persons present had 
never seen General Grant, and it is small wonder that 
they gazed upon him with surprised curiosity. He had 
not the appearance of a great general, or of a dis- 
tinguished person in any calling. His clothes were of 
the ordinary kind, and altogether he appeared like a 
very ordinary man. The applause showered upon him 
was extremely embarrassing to one of his retiring 
nature ; and when he was called upon for a speech he 
blushingly said : "Gentlemen, it is impossible for me 
to do more than thank you." In the course of the 
dinner he turned his glass, took a cigar, lit it in his 
peculiar way, and began to smoke, and the exceeding 
simplicity of the act brought laughter and cheers from 
the company. 

The Common Council of the city prepared resolu- 
tions to be presented to the General in the preamble of 



PUBLIC HOXORS COME AFTER THE BATTLES 189 

which is this sentence: "This body testify their great 
esteem, regard, and indebtedness, due his modest, un- 
swerving energies, swayed neither by the mighty suc- 
cesses which have crowned his genius and efforts in be- 
half of the government, nor the machinations of poli- 
ticians — evidences of the true patriot and soldier." 

After General Grant's return to Nashville he kept 
himself busy in making tours of inspection, and giving 
directions to his generals pertaining to the movements 
of the various commands in the West. His ceaseless 
activity, and the ease with which he was able to grasp 
the situation of affairs in all its details, were a constant 
surprise to the army and the government. He seemed 
never to lack resources, and was always able to do the 
right thing at the right time, and in the issuing of 
orders and making reports. While these documents 
were sent out by the hundreds in every campaign, he 
wrote most of them himself, and General Sherman says 
he had as many as one hundred and fifty, every one of 
which was in General Grant's hand-writing. 




XXVI. 

GRANT COMMANDS THE ARMIES OF THE 
UNION. 

HE phenomenal achievement of General 
Grant at Chattanooga was further proof of 
his consimimate genius as a military leader. 
It is only by reviewing the unbroken series 
of great successes up to the time of his crowning victory, 
and considering their cumulative effect, that one can 
get any adequate conception of his greatness as a com- 
mander. He had met all the leading Confederate 
generals in the West and vanquished them. Buckner 
was made to surrender at Donelson. Albert Sidney 
Johnston lost his life at Shiloh in the vain attempt to 
drive General Grant away from the Tennessee river. 
Beauregard despaired on Sunday of being able to 
capture Pittsburg Landing, and on Monday the Con- 
federate commander fled in disappointment to Corinth. 
Joseph E. Johnston was forced to retreat from Jackson 



GRANT COMMANDS THE ARMIES OF THE UNION 191 

before the vigorous advance of General Grant's army. 
Pemberton was defeated at Champion's Hill and the 
Big Black, and finally made to surrender his army at 
Vicksburg. Bragg met with overwhelming disaster at 
Chattanooga, and this ill-fortune to the Confederate 
chief compelled Longstreet to withdraw his forces from 
Tennessee and take refuge in Virginia. 

1^0 Union successes like these had been won in the 
East. Five generals — McClellan, Pope, Burnside, 
Hooker, Meade — had each been in command of the 
Army of the Potomac at different times during the 
three previous years, and although they had consumed 
an army of 139,000 men (15,172 killed, 74,635 wound- 
ed, and 49,944 missing) no permanent advantage had 
been gained. While the field at Gettysburg had been 
carried by Meade, it was a sore disappointment to the 
Administration and a great misfortune to the cause of 
the Union that Lee was allowed to retreat in good order 
across the Potomac, where he could still make it neces- 
sary to sacrifice many thousand lives before the Union 
forces could break his army in pieces. Contrasting 
what had been done in the West with what had not been 
done in the East, led the Administration to think of 
General Grant in connection with the Army of the 
Potomac and more particularly with all the armies of 
the Union. It did seem to Lincoln and Stanton, and 
finally to Halleck, that General Grant was the one and 
only hope of the nation. 

Referring more particularly to General Grant's call 



192 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

to the Potomac, Colonel Henderson, of the British 
army, says in the Science of War: "The Federal 
strategy in the last year of the war, with Grant in com- 
mand and Sherman his lieutenant, stands out in marked 
relief to the disjointed, partial, and complicated opera- 
tions of the previous years .... Grant seems 
to have been the first to recognize that, as von Moltke 
puts it, the time objective of a campaign is the defeat 
of the enemy's main army .... General 
Sheridan's summing up of the handling of the Army 
of the Potomac, before Grant took command, is to the 
point : The army was all right ; the trouble was that the 
commanders never went out to lick anybody, but always 
thought first of keeping from getting licked.' Grant, 
like Moltke, was always ready to try conclusions." 

On the 29th of February, 1864, Congress revived 
the grade of Lieutenant General, which had been held 
by Washington from 1798 to the time of his death in 
December, 1799. General Winfield Scott held the rank 
only by brevet, from 1855 to his death in 1866. No 
name was mentioned in the act of 1864, but it was 
understood by everybody that it meant the promotion 
of General Grant. Lincoln nominated him for Lieu- 
tenant General on the 1st of March, and the nomination 
was confirmed on the following day. On Thursday, 
March 3d, General Grant, then being in Nashville, re- 
ceived orders from the President to report to Washing- 
ton. 

At five o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, March 8th, 




GENERAL GRANT. 

tciM A Raise PHOTOOKArH Takex at the War Departmext 

A Few Hours after he Received his Commission 

AS Lieutenant General. 

I I'rom a Defective Negative, Never Before Published, 

Loaned l)y AValter Kempster, M.D.] 



i 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

I'ljoM A Photograph Taken at the Same Time and Tlacio 

AS That oi' Oeneral Oraxt on the rRECEniNO, rAGP,. 



GRANT COMMANDS THE ARMIES OF THE UNION 193 

an officer who was modestly attired was seen leading 
a fourteen year old boy by the hand into Willard's 
hotel. Without speaking to any one, or paying any 
attention to the throng in the lobby, he registered as 
"U. S. Grant and son, Galena, Illinois." Then quietly 
and modestly he entered the dining room and took a 
seat at the table. He was not recognized by any one 
when he registered ; but he had been at the table only a 
few minutes when a gentleman from New Orleans rec- 
ognized him, and rising from his seat, cordially shook 
hands with the General, In a flash, as by electric 
communication, the news that General Grant was in the 
room spread through the hotel, and hundreds of guests, 
Senators, Representatives, Supreme Court Judges, 
officers of the army, sprang from their seats and cheered 
in a tremendous manner, and crowded around the blush- 
ing, confused object of this sudden ovation. When his 
meal was finished he left the room, only to encounter an- 
other throng of enthusiastic admirers who awaited him 
in the lower hall. The first time the General ever made 
a retreat from a superior force was when he made his 
way up the staircase into his own room. 

In the evening of the same day General Grant 
visited the White House in company with Secretary 
Seward and several military friends, the special occa- 
sion being the President's levee. Some features of the 
event were more striking than had ever been witnessed 
in the East Room. The General entered the room un- 
announced, and was greatly embarrassed. Although 



194 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Lincoln and he had never met before, the President 
recognized him ahnost instantly, and a most loving 
greeting followed. The meeting of the two greatest 
men in the Nation was a scene difficult to describe. 
General Grant was literally lifted up for a while, and 
in obedience to an urgent demand of the throng for a 
larger view of the hero, Secretary Seward was assisted 
in mounting him upon a sofa. Never before was there 
such a coat-tearing jam in the White House, and the 
General seemed to wonder what it was all about. 

John G. Nicolay, private secretary to the President, 
made personal memoranda of what transpired in the 
small drawing-room after the departure of the crowd. 
The President made an appointment with the General 
for the formal presentation the next day of his commis- 
sion as Lieutenant General. "I shall make a very short 
speech to you," said Lincoln, "to which I desire you to 
reply for an object; and that you may be properly pre- 
pared to do so, I have written what I shall say, only 
four sentences in all, which I will read from manuscript 
as an example which you may follow and also read your 
reply, as you are perhaps not so much accustomed to 
public speaking as I am ; and I therefore give you what 
I shall say so that you may consider it. There are two 
points that I would like to have you make in your an- 
swer: First, to say something which will prevent or 
obviate any jealousy of you from any of the other gen- 
erals in the service ; and second, something which shall 
put you on as good terms as possible with the Army of 



GRANT COMMANDS THE ARMIES OF THE UNION 195 

the Potomac. If you see any objection to doing this, 
be under no restraint whatever in expressing that objec- 
tion to the Secretary of War." 

When the General escaped from the height of the 
sofa in the East Room, where he had been sandwiched 
between two heads of departments for exhibition, and 
got out of doors, he declared that he had quite enough 
of that kind of business ; and, repairing to the hotel, he 
declined in quick succession a public dinner in Xew 
York, a reception on the floor of Congress, and a review 
of the Army of the Potomac. 

One o'clock, Wednesday afternoon, March 9th, was 
the hour fixed for the presentation of the commission 
of Lieutenant-General. An event of that kind had not 
been witnessed since the days of Washington. There 
were present, besides Lincoln and Grant, all the mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, and Halleck, Representative Owen 
Lovejoy of Illinois, General Rawlins and Colonel Com- 
stock of Grant's staff, Frederick, the fourteen-year-old 
son of the General, now Major-General of the United 
States Army, and Private Secretary l^icolay. 

When the General had been presented to the Cabi- 
net, the President approached him and said : "General 
Grant, as the Nation's appreciation of what you have 
done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to be 
done in the existing great struggle, you are now pre- 
sented with this commission, constituting you Lieu- 
tenant-General in the Army of the United States. With 
this high honor devolves upon you also a corresponding 



lUli (WANT. THE MAX OF MYSTEh'T 

responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, 
under God, it will sustain yon. I scarcely need to add 
that Avitli what I here speak for the ]SJ"ation, goes my 
own hearty personal concurrence." 

One of the bravest acts of General Grant's life was 
in preparing his reply to suit himself. Hurriedly, and 
almost in an illegible form, he had written his speech 
on a half sheet of note paper with a lead pencil. And 
when the moment came to respond to the President, his 
embarrassment was great. His voice was somewhat 
tremulous and he found his own writing difficult to 
read, but what he said could hardly have been im- 
proved: "Mr. President, 1 accept the commission with 
gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid 
of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields 
for our common country, it M'ill be my earnest endeavor 
not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full 
weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me; 
and I know that if they are all met, it will be due to 
those armies, and above all, to the favor of that Provi- 
dence which leads both nations and men."" 

There is something unspeakably magnificent i)i the 
courage and independence of the man who stood before 
the President of the United States to receive the high- 
est militarv rank in the world, iind to snv "Xo" to his 



* Grant once wrote to Mr. K. U. Washbiirne : "Nothing ever fell 
over me like a wet blanket so much as my promotion to the lieuten- 
.int-generalcy. As Jiinior major-general in the regular army I thought 
my chances good for being placed in command of the Pacific Division 
when the war closed." 



GRAXT COMMAXDS THE ARMIEti OF THE UMOX 1!)7 

suggestion regarding the Army of the Potomac and its 
generals. Mr. l^icolay, in calling attention to the fact 
that Grant made no response whatever to the subject 
of the President's request of the night previous, says : 
"It is not known wliether he did this after a consulta- 
tion with Stanton, or whether, with his deeper distrust 
of Washington politicians, he thought it wise to begin 
by disregarding all their suggestions.''' 

The General did not leave behind him one word 
Avhich explains his conduct. We may surmise his de- 
termined purpose, but we can go no further. To Lin- 
coln his reference to the army in the East and its com- 
manders was of vital importance, but it will be shown 
further on that Grant wanted but little to do with 
Washington and its influences during his command of 
the army, and in totally ignoring the President's wish, 
he displayed the same exalted courage and sublime 
audacity which had made him so successful in his west- 
ern campaigns. 

On the following day, March yth. Grant went to 
Brandy Station — 70 miles from Washington — to the 
headquarters of General Meade, then commanding the 
Army of the Potomac, whom he had not seen since the 
Mexican War. Upon his return to Washington, Grant 
made preparations to leave immediately for the West, 
but at the close of a consultation with the President and 
the Secretary of War, he was informed that Mrs. Lin- 
coln expected his presence the same evening at a mili- 
tary dinner to be given in his honor, at which twelve 



198 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

distinguished officers, then in the city, were to be pres- 
ent. Frank B. Carpenter, who was then at the White 
House, working on his celebrated painting, "Lincoln 
and his Cabinet," says Grant turned to the President 
and said that it would be impossible for him to remain 
over as he must be in Tennessee at a given time. The 
President insisted that he could not be excused, and 
here we have another manifestation of Grant's inde- 
pendence and will-power. He said to Lincoln : "But 
the time is very precious just now, and really, Mr. 
President, I believe I have had enough of this 'show 
business.' " 

So while the man of deeds — indifferent to blandish- 
ments and caring nothing for receptions — was speed- 
ing on his way to Nashville to meet Sherman and talk 
over the momentous business of trying to end the war, 
the twelve "distinguished" officers were banqueted 
without a guest of honor. But perhaps in the feasting 
and the merry-making of the night, they could not but 
ponder over the strange things which had come to pass 
that day : a general so devoted to his duties in the field 
as to have no time or desire to be received by Congress 
or banqueted by the wife of the President ; a man who 
had been out of the position of a common store-clerk 
hardly three years, given command of all the Union 
forces on land and sea; a great load lifted from the 
long-burdened heart of Lincoln ; the bells of time ring- 
ing in a better day for the cause of the Union. 

When the enormous responsibility of directing 



GRANT COMMANDS THE ARMIES OF THE UNION 199 

600,000 men in the armies of the Union, and 600 war- 
ships was laid upon Grant, the eye of the civilized 
world was fixed upon him. He was to engage in a des- 
perate contest with the splendid army of northern Vir- 
ginia, commanded by Kobert E. Lee. Many were in 
doubt as to the result. But there were two men whose 
faith in final victory was as fixed as the foundation of 
the hills — Lincoln and Grant. Each believed in the 
other. Lincoln liked Grant from the first because he 
was always honest with the administration. Grant 
could no more be stampeded by the danger of meeting 
Lee in the East that he had been in meeting Johnston, 
Beauregard, Pemberton, or Bragg in the West ; neither 
could he be compromised by flattery. 




XXVII. 

PREPARING TO FIGHT LEE. 

IvAXT reached ISasliville on the 1-ith of 
March, and met Sherman on the 17th. 
On the 12th of the month, at the special 
request of Grant, Sherman was placed in 
command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, 
a position held by the former at the time he was as- 
signed to the command of all the armies ; and McPher- 
son, to whom Grant showed a marked affection, suc- 
ceeded Sherman as commander of the Department of 
the Tennessee. 

The relation between Grant and Sherman was pe- 
culiarly touching. The warm and generous friendship 
existing between them was without parallel in the his- 
tory of the American army. In many points they were 
dissimilar. But in all essential things they were one. 
They were patriotic, unselfish, and in honor preferring 
one another ; each had the courage and ability to fight. 



PREPARiya TO FiailT LEE 201 

and in all their operations they were without personal 
ambition or politics. But their love and friendship 
and confidence in each other can be better ilhistrated 
by reference to two charming letters which passed be- 
tween them at the time of Grant's promotion to the 
command of the armies. 

On the 4th of j\farcli, Avhile at Xashville, preparing 
to go to Washington, Grant wrote a letter to Sherman, 
who was then near Memphis, in which he said : 

"I start in tlie morning . . . but I shall say very dis- 
tinctly on my arrival there that I shall accept no appointment 
which will require me to make that city my headquarters. . . . 
While I have been eminently successful in this war, in at least 
gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I 
how much of this success is due to the energy, skill, and the 
harmonious putting forth of that energy and skill, of those whom 
it has been my good fortune to have occupying subordinate posi- 
tions under me. . . . But what I want is to express my 
thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all 
others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How 
far your advice and suggestions have been of assistance you know. 
How far your execution of whatever has been given you to do 
entitles you to the reward I am now receiving you cannot know 
as well as I do. I feel all the gratitude this letter would express, 
giving it the most flattering construction. . . ." 

It has been said that Grant could not write in this 
strain to anyone else in the world. Elsewhere in the 
history of war is not found so beautiful a letter as this 
written to a subordinate. He almost apologizes to 
Sherman for accepting a promotion and an honor which 
he cannot in full measure share. And Sherman, on 
the 10th of the month, Mn-ote an answer which, in noble 



202 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

generosity, almost rivals Grant's. A finer or juster 
characterization of Grant has never been written. It 
is the heart expression of the one commander above all 
others, whose confidence in, and whose affection for, 
Grant never changed from the time he compelled Donel- 
son to surrender to his promotion to commander-in- 
chief: 

"You do yourself injustice and us too much honor in assign- 
ing to us so large a share of the merits which have led to your 
high advancement. You are now Washington's legitimate suc- 
cessor, and occupy a position of almost dangerous elevation; but 
if you can continue as heretofore to be yourself, simple, honest, 
and unpretending, you will enjoy through life the respect and 
love of friends, and the homage of millions of human beings. 
• . . I repeat, you do General McPherson and myself too much 
honor. At Belmont you manifested your traits, neither of us 
being near; at Donelson also you illustrated your whole charac- 
ter. I was not near, and General McPherson in too subordinate 
capacity to influence you. ... I believe you are as brave, 
patriotic, and just as the great prototype, Washington ; as honest, 
unselfish, and kindhearted as a man should be; but the chief 
characteristic in your nature is the simple faith in success you 
have always manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than 
the faith a Christian has in his Saviour. This faith gave you 
victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed 
your best preparations, you go into battle without hesitation, as 
at Chattanooga — no doubts, no reserve; and I tell you that it 
was this that made us act with confidence. I knew, wherever I 
was, that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place j^ou 
would come if alive. . . . 

"Now as to the future. Do not stay in Washington. Hal- 
leck is better qualified than you to stand the buffets of intrigue 
and policy. Come out West; take to yourself the whole Missis- 
sippi Valley. Let us make it dead sure, and I tell you the 
Atlantic slope and the Pacific shores will follow its destiny, as 



PREPARING TO FIGHT LEE 203 

sure as the limbs of a tree live or die with the main trunk. 
. . . For God's sake and for your country's sake, come out of 
Washington. I foretold to Halleck before he left Corinth the 
inevitable result to him, and now I exhort you to come out 
West. . . ." 

When Shei-maii met Grant at Nashville, the greet- 
ing he gave him was this : ^'I cannot congratulate you 
on your promotion; the responsil)ility is too great." 
But Grant answered not a word, and "kept on smoking." 
Matters pertaining to the movements of the great armies 
were discussed during the two or three days the two 
commanders were at Nashville, and as Grant was in 
haste to return to the Potomac, they rode together as far 
as Cincinnati, and in the spirit of tenderly affectioned 
brothers, they talked over campaign plans, and then 
parted, not to meet again until a few days before the 
saving of the Union was accomplished. 

Grant arrived in Washing-ton on the 23d of March, 
and without delay held a conference with the Presi- 
dent and the Secretary of War. A story is told by 
Colonel William Conant Church of the Army and Navy 
Journal, which illustrates how unshaken was the Presi- 
dent's confidence in Grant's ability to march the Army 
of the Potomac against the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia and capture the stronghold of the rebellion. The 
incident took place just before Grant established his 
headquarters in the field. When he called upon the 
Secretary of War, the latter said : 

"Well, General, I suppose you have left us enough 
men to garrison the forts strongly." 



204 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYHTERY 

''No, I can't do that," Avas the General's quiet reply. 

"Why not ? Why not ?" repeated the nervous Sec- 
retary. 

"Because I have already sent the men to the front, 
where they are needed more than in Washington." 

"That won't do," said Stanton. "It's contrary to 
my plans. I will order the men back." 

Grant maintained a quiet determination, and re- 
plied : 

"I shall need the men there, and you cannot order 
them back." 

"Why not i Why not ^" cried the Secretary. 

"I believe I rank the Secretary of War in this mat- 
ter," remarked Grant. 

"Very well, we will see the President," sharply re- 
sponded the Secretary. 

"That's right ; he ranks us both." 

Going to the President, Secretary Stanton, turning 
to Grant, said : 

"General, state your case." 

But the General calmly replied : 

"I have no case to state. I am satisfied as it is." 

When Stanton had given his view of the matter, 
Lincoln crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair, and 
like the wise philosopher that he was, said : 

"Now, Mr. Secretary, you know we have been try- 
ing to manage this army for nearly three years, and you 
know we haven't done much with it. We sent ovei" the 



PREPARIXG TO FIGHT LEE 205 

mountains and bronglit Mr. Grant, as Mrs. Grant calls 
him, to manage it for us, and now I guess we'd better 
let Mr. Grant have his own way." 

After Grant had explained to the President some 
features of the proposed campaign in Virginia, the lat- 
ter said to a friend in Baltimore: "When I listen to 
him explaining his plans and purposes in the coming 
campaign, I am appalled at their magnitude and as- 
tounded at the contidence he seems to feel in his ability 
to accomplish them." 

The strange man from the West — a stranger to 
Washington and to nearly every public man and mili- 
tary leader in the East — was never more mysterious 
than when he planned the Virginia campaign. What 
his plans were he did not give in detail to the War 
Office. He did not even whisper all of them in the ear 
of the President. But the President did not mind 
this omission. He believed in Grant and desired that 
he should have his own way ; and Grant's faith in his 
own purposes was so strongly rooted that just before 
the forward movement l^egan he said : '^I feel as cer- 
tain of crushing Lee as I do of dying." 

The battleground on wliich the fate of the Confed- 
eracy was to be decided embraced a strip of the State 
of Virginia extending about one hundred miles south 
from Washington, and varying from forty to sixty miles 
wide from east to west. The flower of the Confederate 
army, commanded l\y the South's greatest military 
genius, was planted in the middle of this territory. Up 



206 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

to the close of 1863 more battles had been fought on 
this ground — nearly forty in all — than on any other 
strip of land of like extent in the South; and yet, so 
far as protecting the Confederate capital was concerned, 
Lee was master of the field. Lincoln knew, as well as 
the hero of many victories knew, that any further move- 
ment towards Richmond would "exact its frightful toll 
of blood." But both were reconciled to the fact that 
the appalling sacrifice of life which must be made in 
the grapple with Lee was not too great a price to pay 
for the saving of the Union. 

In his movement against Lee, Grant's confidence 
and judgment were strengthened by his freedom from 
the morbid delusion, so often exhibited in McClellan, 
that the enemy greatly outnumbered him. jSTeither did 
he harbor for a moment the unpatriotic thought which 
at the time prevailed among many jSTorthern people, 
that the Southern "stalwart" soldiers, as they were often 
called in the North, had better fighting qualities than 
the boys from the schools, workshops, and farms of the 
Xorth. 

On the 26th of March Grant repaired to his head- 
quarters at Culpeper, seventy-five miles southwest of 
Washington. Lee's headquarters were at Orange Court 
House, only fifteen miles further south. 

The strength of the Army of the Potomac at the 
end of April, 1864, was 122,000, and according to com- 
mon reports the Confederate forces under Lee numbered 
62,000. But Grant reminds us that the manner of 



PREPARINa TO FIGHT LEE 207 

estimating numbers in the two armies differed mate- 
rially. "In the Confederate army often only bayonets 
are taken into account; never, I believe, do they esti- 
mate more than are handling the guns of the artillery 
and armed with muskets or carbines. Officers and 
details of enlisted men are not included. In the North- 
ern armies the estimate is most liberal, taking in all 
connected with the army and drawing pay. . . . 
Estimating in the same manner as ours, Lee had not less 
than 80,000 men at the start; and his reinforcements 
were about equal to ours during the campaign. He was 
on the defensive, and in a country in which every 
stream, every road, every obstacle to the movement of 
troops and every natural defence were familiar to him 
and his army. . . . All circumstances considered, 
we did not have any advantage in numbers." 

The Union army at this time, over which Grant had 
command, was not far from 600,000, and the amazing 
activity of his mind between the 23d of March, the date 
of his return to Washington from the West, and April 
4th, is shown in his plan to utilize effectively this vast 
army of volunteers in making, so far as it was possible, 
a simultaneous movement against all the Confederate 
forces in the field. 

Colonel Henderson, who is one of the most candid 
of foreign critics of Grant, says in The Science of War: 
"Until Grant took command in 1864, the Federal army 
never operated in combination. While one was mov- 
ing forward the other was resting or preparing for a 



•208 GRAXT, THE MAX OF l/r.S'7'/?/?T 

fresh advance ; and this disjointed state of things per- 
mitted their enemy to reinforce the threatened point 
at his leisnre. Grant initiated a new policy. He pressed 
his opponents at every point simnltaneously. Relying 
on his superior numbers he neutralized all the South- 
ern advantages of interior lines, ... It was easy 
enough for the Southern armies to get across the Con- 
federacy in a very short time, and, by destroying the 
railroads, to make pursuit hopeless. This was pre- 
vented by Grant's energy in pushing the attack at every 
point." 

The armies involved were to move with almost the 
precision with which one would move his men on a 
chess-board. Therefore Grant found it necessary to 
give Meade confidential instructions regarding his prep- 
arations for the coming campaign in Virginia. Meade 
was in command of the Army of the Potomac, and the 
keynote of Grant's plan of campaign was sounded in 
these instructions : ''Lee's army will be your objective 
point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." 
This was Grant's plan to take Richmond. It was new 
to the generals on the Potomac, but almost everything 
he had done during the previous three years was both 
new and strange to the commanding generals. East and 
West. He seems to have been the first clearly to com- 
prehend the fact that the Confederacy stood on only two 
legs : Richmond, the seat of its power in the East, con- 
stituting the right ; and Yicksburg, in the West, block- 
ading the Mississippi with its frowning guns, being the 



PREPARiya TO FIGHT LEE 209 

left. Having broken the latter, thus reopening the . 
Mississippi, Grant now pnrposed to break the former 
by chasing Lee and provoking him to fight, or flanking 
him, and steadily approaching Richmond, ''dragging' 
Lee after him." 

Grant tells ns tliat lie had not seen Meade from the 
close of the Mexican War until the 11th of March, 
1864, when they met at Brandy Station. At that time 
Meade earnestly urged Grant to relieve him of the com- 
mand of the Army of the Potomac, if he wanted Sher- 
man or any other officer who had served w^ith him in 
the West, to take his place. Grant refused to do this, 
but it gave the Commander-in-chief ''a more favorable 
opinion of Meade than did his great victory at Gettys- 
burg the July before." 

But Grant says: '"Meade's position afterwards 
proved embarrassing to me if not to him. ... I 
tried to make his position as nearly as possible what it 
would have been if I had been in Washington or any 
other place away from his command. T therefore gave 
all orders for the movements of the Army of the Poto- 
mac to Meade to have them executed. To avoid the 
necessity of having to give orders direct, I established 
my headquarters near his, unless there were reasons for 
locating them elsewhere. This sometimes happened, 
and I had occasion to give orders direct to the troops 
affected." 

But it was as gratifying as it was surprising thai 
the two commanders, so dissimilar in many personal 



210 ORAyr, THE MA\ OF MYSTERY 

traits, maintained such harmonious relationship in the 
great struggle and numberless vexations of the field. 
Physically there was a wide difference between them. 
One was small, modest in speech, slow in movement, 
lacking in military bearing, reserved in demeanor, with 
an impassive face, and almost listless at times. The 
other was tall, emphatic, the very picture of a soldier, 
quick in articulation and in action, with a "face as of 
antique parchment." To a casual observer it would 
seem as if the military rank of the two men should be 
reversed. But Meade was a brave soldier and a splen- 
did patriot, and the complaints that he did not receive 
fair treatment while in command of the Army of the 
Potomac under Grant came from his unM'ise friends 
and never from him. But it must be admitted that 
Meade did not possess the unconquerable will and the 
genius to plan and successfully execute a great cam- 
paign like the final one against Lee. The peculiar 
qualities which made Grant so successful in the West, 
were lacking in Meade as well as in all his predecessors 
on the Potomac. 

When Richard Henry Dana, Jr., was in Washing- 
ton in April, 1864, he met Grant for the first time at 
the breakfast table at Willard's, and in his journal of 
April 21st he describes most vividly "the homeliness of 
the rather shabby and unimpressive figure" selected to 
lead the armies of the Union to victory. Mr. Dana 
says, as quoted in his life by Charles Francis Adams: 
"Grant gets over the ground queerly. He does not 



PREPARING TO FIGHT LEE 211 

march or walk, but pitches along as if the next step 
would bring him on his nose. But his face looks firm 
and hard and his eye is clear and resolute, and he is 
certainly natural and clear of all appearance of self- 
consciousness. How war, hoAV all great crises bring us 
to the one-man power !" 

Mr. Dana said to Grant: "I suppose you don't 
mean to breakfast here again till the war is over." 
Handling his English "as cavalierly as if it were the 
enemy," the General promptly answered: "Not here, 
I shan't." He made good his promise. He did not 
breakfast at Willard's again till the army of Lee was 
broken in pieces, and Peace was emblazoned upon "the 
dome of the Union sky." 

With the beginning of May the army was ready to 

move toward Kichmond ; and on the 30th of April the 

President sent Grant a charming letter, part of which 

is as follows : 

"Not expecting to see you again before the spring campaign 
opens, I wish to express in this way my entire satisfaction with 
what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. 
The particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. 
You are vigilant and self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish 
not to obtrude any constraints or restraints upon you. . . . 
If there is anything wanting which is within my power to give, 
do not fail to let me know. And now with a brave army and a 
just cause, may God sustain you." 

Grant was touched more deeply by this letter than 

by any communication he had received from any public 

official. He cared little for praise or fame, and the 

joyful public acclamations following any one of his 



212 ({RAST. THE MAN OF MYl:iTEJty 

great victories apparently did not move bini. But the 
words which came from the great heart of Lincohi made 
a deep impression upon him, and in the quiet hour of 
Sunday afternoon, May 1st, and while in a mood be- 
fitting the occasion, he wrote an answer, the like of 
which the President had never received from any pre- 
vious commander : 

"Your very kind letter of yesterday is just received. The 
confidence you express for the future and satisfaction for the 
past in my military administration is acknowledged with pride. 
. . . I have never had any cause of complaint . . . against 
the administration or the Secretary of War, for throwing any 
embarrassment in the way of my vigorously prosecuting what 
a;)perirs to be my duty. ... 1 have been astonished at the 
readiness with which everything asked for has been yielded with- 
out cxeii an explanation being asked. Should my success be less 
than I desire and expect, the least 1 can siiy is. th.e fault is not 
w ill) you." 

I5_\ tlu' iiiiiht of .M:iy ;m1 the .Vi'iiiy of the Potomac 
was reiuly to move in the face of the enemy and toward 
liiehmond. On tliat memora])le night Grant assembled 
his ofiiec'r.s at hi;s headquarters at Culpeper and ([uii'tly 
and brielly unfolded to them a comprehensive plan of a 
campaign wliich showed remarkable penetrative power; 
;tnd while this impressive midnight meeting was being 
held, the woi'ld was looking on, wondei'ing wbal wonM 
be the result. 




XXVIII. 
THE DESPERATE FIGHT IN THE WILDERNESS. 

LITTLE after midnight on May 4th, 
1864, the Army of the Potomac moved to 
the south side of the Rapidan. The Con- 
federates were not ignorant of this move- 
ment. They clearly divined its purpose. The Con- 
federate authorities at Richmond now became satisfied 
for the first time that it was really Grant's purpose to 
take the city. Before this they believed the demonstra- 
tions in that direction were a mere feint to conceal his 
real intentions. They flattered themselves that "On to 
Richmond" had been tried so often without success that 
it would not be ventured on very soon again ; and that 
Grant was endeavoring to accomplish by strategy some 
grand result not attainable by the valor and strength 
of the Union armies. 

^ever was the Army of the Potomac so peculiarly 
and emphatically the Grand Army as it was at the be- 
ginning and during the remainder of one of the most 



/ 



214 OR ANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

memorable campaigns in the history of modern warfare. • 
All former methods of trying to take Richmond were 
abandoned. The current phrase, "All quiet along the 
Potomac," was now obsolete. The army was in the 
field to fight and win. The magnificent army of 122,- 
000 was splendidly equipped for any emergency. 
Grant was a good feeder of men. His supply train 
was made up of 4,000 wagons, which, if placed in 
single file, would reach from the Rapidan to Richmond. 
The infantry consisted of four corps, the Second 
commanded by W. S. Hancock, the Fifth by G. K. War- 
ren, the Sixth by John Sedgwick, and the Ninth — an 
independent organization — by Burnside. Sheridan, 
whose gallantry at Chattanooga had been observed by 
Grant, was called to the Potomac and given command 
of 14,000 cavalry. In addition to this, over 300 
pieces of cannon accompanied the command. Grant 
hoped to be able to flank Lee and fight him on more 
favorable ground than that which lay between the 
Rapidan and Spottsylvania. But in this he was dis- 
appointed. The movement of the Army of the Potomac 
was discerned by Lee, and on the afternoon of Thurs- 
day, May 5th, the clash of the two armies began. The 
time and place were of Lee's ovm choosing. He had 
the enormous advantage of position. He seems to have 
been confident that he could trap Grant in the Wilder- 
ness. But Grant was determined to stand battle even 
against tremendous disadvantage ; and thus "began the 
mutual slaughter of the Wilderness, on a scene the 



THE DESPERATE FIOHT IN THE WILDERNESS 215 

strangest ever chosen by man or bj destiny for a field of 
a great battle." 

The Wilderness, which proved a formidable ob- 
stacle to Grant's advance, and into which he plunged 
his army when provoked by Lee, is described as a 
regular jungle, a table-land covered with dense under- 
growth, scrub-oak, dwarf pines, and hazel thicket woven 
together by trailing vines and briars. It was nothing- 
less than "a. region of gloom and the shadow of death." 

I cannot here describe the movements of all the 
corps or divisions engaged in the two battles in the 
Wilderness. By the limitation placed upon me I must 
confine myself as closely as possible to the deeds of 
Grant, which show how much his presence on the field 
and his direction of all the chief movements in bat- 
tle inspired the valor of the army and influenced results. 

On Thursday morning. May 5th, when the corps 
commanders took up the line of March in two columns 
five miles apart, but to concentrate when conditions de- 
manded, Lee was massing his troops to break the Union 
line. This was the battle in the Wilderness. At this 
hour (early on Thursday) Grant had not reached the 
leading column, but Meade assumed the responsibility 
to say to Warren, whose corps was in advance, "We 
must fight. This is the battleground." And, "If the 
enemy attacks, go into battle with all the men you have." 
This was no sooner said than Warren's corps was struck 
by Ewell's column. 

When Grant arrived at the scene of action he or- 



216 GRAXT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

dered Hancock to join Warren. Then Longstreet be- 
gan to hurl his battalions against the Second Corps. But 
it was all in vain. It was a terrible beginning of the 
march to Richmond. From an early hour in the after- 
noon till night came on the firing was incessant. The 
Avoods and underbrush were so dense that officers had to 
dismount. It is said that at times portions of the two 
armies were hardly more than two hundred yards apart, 
hut not a man on either side could be seen. 

There was no room in the jungle for manoeuvering 
the army; no possibility of a bayonet charge; no help 
from artillery; none from cavalry; nothing but close, 
square, severe, face to face volleys of fatal musketry — 
roll surging upon roll — without the least cessation! 
The onslaught of the Confederates was pushed M'ith 
strange obstinacy. Lee was fighting with desperation 
on the ground he had chosen for a victory. But it was 
not until darkness came that he realized that his efforts 
had failed, that his best chance of success had gone, and 
he quietly withdrew from the scene of carnage. 

When the account of the first clash with Lee reached 
Washington, Lincoln is reported to have said : "Any 
other commander the Army of the Potomac has had 
would have at once withdrawn his army over the Rapi- 
dan after that first day's reception." But instead of 
getting out of the Wilderness, Grant ordered an attack 
all along the line at five o'clock on Friday morning. 
And it was such generalship and fighting as this that 
prompted Quartermaster General Ingalls, who was witli 



THE DESPERATE FIGHT IX THE WILDERNEtiti 217 

the armv, to say: "The world never heard of war be- 
fore." 

The second day's struggle in the Wilderness began 
at Grant's appointed time. The attack was carried all 
along the line, some five miles in length, the army fac- 
ing southward. It was the battle of Thursday contin- 
ued — the same storm of bullets, the same continuous, 
desperate, determined struggle against hampering con- 
ditions, the same murderous conflict for the right of way 
to Richmond, the same willingness of the Union soldiers 
to take all the chances of life or death in the tremendous 
onslaught of a valiant foe. 

The conflict began on the left of the line in front of 
Hancock, who succeeded in forcing the enemy a mile 
and a half to the rear, and within a hundred and fifty 
yards of Lee's headquarters. The reward for this vigor- 
ous assault was the capture of the enemy's rifle-pits, 
flags, and many prisoners. But the victory was soon 
followed by a repulse. The Confederates were rein- 
forced by Longstreet, who began a charge on the Sec- 
ond corps with a force irresistible. Solid masses of 
infantry were hurled upon Hancock time after time, 
but at last he took a stand from which he could not be 
driven. Reinforcements had been sent him, and later 
in the day Grant ordered Hancock to renew the assault, 
and at once the fortunes of the day were changed. 

A number of sharp attacks were made at various 
points, and invariably repulsed, whether made by the 
Union troops or the enemy. These occasional repulses 



% 



218 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

by tlie Confederates did not bring on forebodings of de- 
feat in the minds of those who knew the tenacity of pur- 
pose and fertility of resources which characterized 
Grant. During the moments when he was watching the 
battle in silence, he was in full command of all his 
powers, with the outward calm and composure of perfect 
self-control. 

Friday was a trying day to Lee. Things had not 
gone according to his reckoning. To fail to stampede 
Grant, or, at least, not to be able to hold his own lines 
on Saturday, was a grievous disappointment. The 
Confederate commander's calculation was that Grant 
ought to have considered himself beaten, and retired 
after the two days' fight and ended the campaign, as 
some of his predecessors had done, almost as soon as it 
was begun. But that was not Grant's way of fighti)ig, 
as his western campaigns might have taught his Con- 
federate opponent. 

And so the battle raged with the never-varying flash- 
ing of musketry and the constant distress caused by nat- 
ural impediments. J^ot more than a score of the 300 
cannon with the army could be employed ; and whatever 
of cavalry was brought in action was dismounted. 
During Friday Hancock was ordered to repel one of 
the fiercest assaults encountered in the Wilderness. It 
was brief, but bloody, terrific in power and almost 
superhuman momentum. 

Grant's hope and determination were indestructible. 
On Friday afternoon, when the troops were hotly en- 



THE DESPERATE FIQHT IN THE WILDERNESS 219 

gaged, the air filled with gloom, the smoke almost 
stifling, and the heat oppressive, General Rawlins, chief- 
of-staff, seemed to manifest some misgivings as to the 
result of the day's work. But the Commander-in-chief, 
with a look that did not bear any indication of a dis- 
turbed feeling, quietly said: "The fighting is difficult 
and hard, and the losses are heavy, but Lee will not gain 
an inch of ground by bringing on this battle." 

It is conclusive from the records of Thursday and \ 
Friday that "Lee attempted the same tactics at the Wil- \ 
derness on Grant that he had practised on Hooker at 
Chancellorsville, where he had defeated an army larger 
by 20,000 men than that with which Grant had passed 
the river. He failed to drive Grant back across the 
Rapidan, as he had driven Hooker the year before from 
nearly those same woods, and Burnside from Fredericks- 
burg in December, 1862. The effect of this failure was 
to change Lee from the bold aggressor to a careful, even 
timid defender of fortified lines." 

The dawn of Saturday showed that Lee had fallen 
back behind his intrenchments. The hard hammering 
he received from Grant during the previous two days 
gave him much concern, and no attempt was made to 
plunge his much weakened army into another battle. 
And here ended the historic battle of the Wilderness, 
in which was witnessed. Grant says, "more desperate 
fighting than had ever been known on this continent." 
From beginning to end it was a bloody bush-fight. So 
determined was the fight that in the belt between the 



220 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYl^TERy 

opposing forces were places which were fought over 
four or five times dnring- the hattle. 

Tlie mysterious man in the Wilderness — "the small 
man on the black horse" — was an interesting study. 
The keen-eyed, ever alert, and nonpartisan war corre- 
spondents who were on the field to witness the opera- 
tions of the army and record events are the most com- 
petent persons to portray Grant's characteristics in his 
Virginia campaign. On Saturday, May 7th, (Uiarles 
A. Page, the brilliant and trustworthy correspondent of 
the New York Tribune, rode along the lines, looking 
for something romantic in the appearance of the man 
who was the leader of the Union armies. "The shrewd, 
profound, prescient soul and hero of Vicksburg gleamed 
only at rare intervals. Xo intimation of the workings 
of the inner man is portrayed. The bronzed face was 
immobile — impenetrable as iron." 

Once it was observed that Grant had his staff with 
an escort dash through the woods of the Wilderness 
upon by-roads to avoid the troops and wagon-trains, his 
escort trailing after him. They galloped through the 
darkness, occasionally overtaking a body of troops who, 
as they passed, raised such shouts and cheers as to re- 
duce any similar demonstration whicli the army had 
manifested toward any other commander into utter in- 
significance. Grant seldom smiled or bowed, because 
he had serious business on hand, but for all that, the 
Army of the Potomac had more confidence in liini than 
in any previous commander. 



TtiE DEHPERATE FIGHT IX THE WlLDERNEtiS 221 

William F. G. Shanks sent from the Wilderness 
this letter to the New York Herald: 

"I had seen Grant at Vicksburg and in Tennessee, 
and his appearance was familiar, but as I strolled 
throngh the group of officers reclining on the ground un- 
der the trees at headquarters, I looked for him some 
time in vain, such was his insignificant, unpretending 
aspect and conduct while the battle Avas raging in all 
its fury. A stranger to the insignia of military rank 
would have little dreamed that the plain, quiet man who 
sat with his back against a tree, apparently heedless 
and unmoved, was the one u^jon whom the fortunes of 
the day, if not of the age and country, were hinging. 

"The consultation with Meade, or the direct sug- 
gestion or command, all took place with that same im- 
perturbability of countenance for which he has always 
been remarkable. Xo movement of the enemy seemed 
to puzzle him. . . . And while all this trans- 
pired he stood calmly in the group, at times smoking 
his favorite cigar — a more frequent puffing only indi- 
cating the inward Avorking of the mind. If something- 
transpired which he deemed needed his personal atten- 
tion, away he darted on horse-back to the scene, the one 
or two of his aides and an orderly exerting their utmost 
to keep up with him. Arriving on the spot, he calmly 
considered the matter, with ready judgment communi- 
cated the necessary orders, and then galloped away to 
another part of the field." 

Lee said to his officers on Thursdav mornins,', the 



222 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

5th : "I will give Grant three days to get out of the Wil- 
derness, and back across the Rapidan." He supposed 
that history, as to the movements of the army of the 
Potomac, would repeat itself. But with all the difficul- 
ties and horrors of the first battle, Grant seemed as if 
he were not a man, but a tireless, relentless Force 
set for the devouring of the Confederate hosts. He 
did not get out of the Wilderness in three days, but 
firmly set his face towards Richmond, moved on and 
"dragged Lee after him." 

The connection of Sheridan and his cavalry with 
the battle of the Wilderness furnishes an incident which 
deserves notice because of its importance as a piece of 
war history, although not a matter of record. It has 
already been stated that the cavalry performed but little 
service in the famous "brush-wood" battle. No general 
in the army had a greater thirst for a square open fight 
with the enemy than Phil. Sheridan. He had a par- 
donable self-confidence and immense courage, and could 
not get away from the conviction that he could whip 
any cavalry force the enemy might hurl against him, 
and, like Grant, he was peculiarly fortunate in never 
having over-measured his own strength. 

General Edward W. Whitaker, a member of Sheri- 
dan's staff, has contributed to The Independent an ac- 
count of how the dashing cavalry leader came to fight 
the great battle of Yellow Tavern. I can give only the 
substance of what General WTiitaker says. During the 
close of the Wilderness battle Sheridan gave AVhitaker 



THE DESPERATE FIGHT IN THE WILDERNESS 223 

oral directions to liud Grant, who Avas somewhere on 
the battle line, and say to him that he was tired of 
trying to fight in the woods, and wanted authority to 
take his entire cavalry force into Lee's rear. Grant and 
Meade were found in the pines where shot and shell 
were flying through the tree-tops, shattering everything 
in their course. Whitaker delivered the message to 
the Commander-in-chief, and upon receiving it he 
turned to Meade with remarkable calmness and said: 
"General, what do you think of it ? Sheridan wants to 
take his entire cavalry into Lee's rear." Meade re- 
plied, with a shrug of the shoulders, that he did not like 
the idea, and added : "What about our trains ? Will 
the cavalry officers be responsible for our trains ?" 
Grant replied: "General, I guess Stuart will have 
enough to do with Sheridan in Lee's rear, and we can 
take care of the trains." 

Grant's prompt decision had a far-reaching effect. 
In four days the decisive battle of Yellow Tavern was 
fought within six miles of Richmond, the ablest cavalry 
general of the Confederacy was killed, and his force 
routed. 

At no time during the war were the apparent incon- 
gruities and contradictory qualities of Grant's physical 
and mental characteristics more marked than during 
this period of the Virginia campaign. Visitors and 
war correspondents who first saw him in the Wilderness 
were filled with amazement. It has been said that "his 
physiognomy was always at fault." The light of his 



224 GRAM', THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

countenance never shone before men no matter how 
great were his achievements on the field. Small in 
stature and somewhat stooped in form, but endowed 
with wonderful endurance and aggressiveness ; slow in 
movement, but marvellous in his spring to action before 
the enemy ; homely, and heedless as to dress and to cer- 
tain manners becoming his rank as a commander-in- 
chief, but a gentleman in every act and word ; modest 
as a maiden and timid in many ways, he was the boldest 
and most intrepid fighter and conqueror of his time. 
Gentle, sympathetic, and humane to a rare degree, he 
was smiting Lee as he had smitten Beauregard, Long- 
street, and Bragg with terrific tenacity and force, 'Svith 
his hammer of blood and flesh when he believed it was 
the only way to success." 



dk. 




XXIX. 

THE RACE TO SPOTTSYLVANIA-THE BATTLE. 

ll X Saturday, when Grant observed that Lee 
had abandoned his intrenchments, he de- 
cided to move to Spottsylvania. Lee began 
the same moment and nearly at the same 
time. The seedy little old town, forsaken long ago, was 
an important strategic point, from which the roads 
leading southward, both to the right and left, diverged ; 
and here Lee determined to make another trial of his 
strength. 

In the race on Saturday night. May 7th, between 
the two armies on parallel roads, for the occupation of 
Spottsylvania, the enemy won. But this must not be 
interpreted as conveying any censure of the Army of the 
Potomac. It was necessary that Grant should take 
heavy supply trains with him which somewhat retarded 
his progress. But it was not this simple accident of 
war which caused the loss of Spottsylvania to Grant. 
When his wac'on trains were set in motion on Saturdav 



226 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

afternoon, Lee discovered the movement, and not being- 
certain whether Grant was moving to the left or falling 
back to Fredericksburg, he ordered Longstreet'ss corps, 
then under the command of R. H. Anderson, to march 
to Spottsylvania on Sunday morning. But Anderson 
transcended his orders, with a success due partly to acci- 
dent and partly to his excess of zeal. Finding the 
woods in his route on fire, and no suitable place to 
bivouac, he pushed to Spottsylvania during the night ; 
and thus it came about that Warren's corps (which 
formed the head of Grant's column), arriving in the 
neighborhood the next morning after a laborious march, 
found themselves confronted by Longstreet's veterans 
in position. This singular incident caused both Grant 
and Lee to be grievously disappointed. Grant had 
hoped to pass beyond Spottsylvania in his night march ; 
and Lee, supposing that Grant did not intend to go to 
Spottsylvania, telegraphed exultingly to Richmond : 
"The enemy has abandoned his position and is moving 
towards Fredericksburg. . . . Our advance is now 
at Spottsylvania Court House." 

A shower of rain in the night of June I7th did 
much to change the fortunes of Napoleon at Waterloo; 
and burning woods in the night of May 7th was one of 
the strange chances of war which decide the fate of 
battles. Could Anderson have bivouacked with safety 
on Saturday night, in all probability the desperate bat- 
tle at Spottsylvania, with its awful slaughter to the 
L^nion forces, would not have been fought. 



THE RACE TO ^POTTSYLVANIA—THE BATTLE 227 

On Sunday Grant found the enemy quite strongly 
entrenched at Spottsylvania, his lines almost encircling 
the town. During Sunday and Monday — the 8tli and 
9th — the Union army was placed in battle-line which 
stretched nearly six miles in the form of a crescent. 
From the moment Grant arrived near Spottsylvania, he 
was impressed with the solemn fact that conditions 
foreboded the coming of a great storm of battle. With 
the manoeuvering on Sunday and Monday was much 
sharp fighting which was indecisive, except that it 
demonstrated that Lee, with all his advantage of posi- 
tion, could not make Grant take one step backward. 
The battle ground was covered with forest and tangled 
underbrush, which meant that the conflict in the Wil- 
derness was to be repeated at Spottsylvania ; and behind 
all these obstructions were concealed the enemy's bat- 
teries. It was on Monday that General Sedgwick, the 
brave commander of the Sixth corps, fell a victim to 
the deadly aim of Confederate sharpshooters. While 
superintending the placing of a battery, he was laugh- 
ing at his men for wincing at the whistling of the shots 
which came dangerously near their heads, when a bullet 
pierced his face, and while smiling, he died. The com- 
mand of his corps thereafter fell upon General H. G. 
Wright. 

Tuesday morning. May 10th, was intensely hot. 
The work of the day was a prelude to the most desperate 
battle fought by the army since Grant left Culpeper. 
Up to this time the batteries had been almost silent ; 



228 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

but on this morning they began a wild and general 
roar. Grant had ordered an attack by the infantry at 
one o'clock in the afternoon, and Lee was prepared for 
the assault. As details do not belong here, a general 
description only of the conflict can be given. 

In writing of the heroism and patient endurance of 
the Grant Army of the Potomac in its operations on 
Tuesday, one cannot particularize in regiments or 
brigades, so vast were the forces engaged. Xearly all 
contributed to the marvellous scene of strife — "the con- 
stant rattle and roll of musketry ; the roar of cannon ; 
the deep reverberations ; the cheers of the brave men ; 
the explosion of shells and the terrific whizzing of the 
fragments." The main attack by the enemy was on 
Hancock's corps. He faced an awful storm of shot and 
shell. It was volley after volley, surge after surge, 
roll after roll, and yet how the Second corps stood like 
a wall of adamant ! A trustworthy con*espondent who 
saw as much of the battle as was possible for any one 
man to see, says the attack of Longstreet upon the 
Second corps at Gettysburg had more desperation in it 
than that at Spottsylvania, but the former lasted only 
fifteen minutes while the duration of the latter was 
through hours of hard, persistent, sanguinary conflict; 
and here, as at Gettysburg, Longstreet's attack failed. 
Warren's Fifth corps and Wright's Sixth were also true 
and effective in facing the deadly storm of iron and 
lead ; but having borne the brunt of the desperate strug- 
gle, and having sacrificed more lives to the cause of sue- 



THE RACE TO SPOTTSYLVANIA—THE BATTLE 229 

cess than all other portions of the army combined, the 
valor of the Second corps should be ever memorable in 
the history of the war for the Union. 

General J. C. Rice, of Warren's corps, was mortally 
wounded in one of the charges on Tuesday afternoon, 
and just before he expired he requested to be turned 
over on his side. "Which way ?" asked an attendant. 
"Turn my face toward the enemy" ; and with these 
words on his lips, he died, as many hundreds of brave 
men fell that day with their faces toward the enemy. 

During the forenoon of Tuesday Grant sent this 
brief message to Halleck : "The enemy holds our front 
in very strong force, and evinces a strong disposition to 
interpose between us and Richmond to the last. I will 
take no backward step. Send to Belle Plain all the in- 
fantry you can rake and scrape." The hands of time 
never turn backwards, neither did the Army of the Po- 
tomac under the lead of Grant to Richmond. Had there 
been any faltering in the General at this juncture, any 
tardiness in his decision, any shrinking from the sacri- 
fice of legions of brave men in his purpose to hold his 
ground, all had been lost. 

When the carnage of Tuesday closed at nightfall — 
the fire and rolling clouds of smoke dividing the two 
armies and giving the scene an awful sublimity — it 
seemed that not much had been gained on either side. 
It was a battle of various phases and diverse fortunes. 
In some instances, there were perhaps some misunder- 
standings and misadventures among the officers ; but for 



230 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

all that it was a great battle, and Grant was still hope- 
ful, and at an earlj hour on Wednesday morning the 
11th, he sent the following message to Secretary Stan- 
ton: 

"Our losses liave been heavy, as well as those of the enemy. 
1 think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We have tiiken 
over five thousand prisoners by battle, while he has taken from 
us but few, excepting stragglers." 

To this dispatch belongs a paragraph which con- 
tains another of Grant's burning sentences like the 
eloquent epigram uttered at Donelson: '*I propose to 
fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." 

Grant was fighting with a quiet determination which 
left no doubt of his ultimate success. There ^vas no 
spirit of boastfulness manifest in this famous dispatch. 
What he said was simply a reaffirmation of his purpose 
to make Richmond fall by crushing Lee's army. His 
audacity was sublime and a good example of this is 
found in his dispatch to the War Department on Tues- 
day the 10th of May: "Please have supplies of forage 
and provisions sent at once, and fifty rounds of ammuni- 
tion for one hundred thousand men." 

There was no fighting on Wednesday. It was a day 
of preparation for one of the most furious battles of the 
war. Although the army had fought almost continu- 
ously since it crossed the Rapidan eight days before, it 
was ready to contend again with the enemy on Thursday 
for the possession of Spottsylvania. 

On Wednesday afternoon Grant ordered Hancock 
to move his corps to the front of the right center of 



TEE RACE TO HFOTTHYLVAl^IA—THE BATTLE 231 

Lee's intrenchments where was located the famous 
sailent — a part of the works which projected outward — 
a position difficult to assault, and because of this diffi- 
culty the business of capturing it was assigned to the 
gallant commander of the Second corps. In darkness 
and through storm on Wednesday night Hancock 
quietly moved his men to a position not more than 
twelve hundred yards from the insolent sailent whose 
face line was over two miles in length. 

Grant's order, issued through Meade, was that 
Hancock should make the assault at four o'clock Thurs- 
day morning. He was to be supported by Burnside of 
the Ninth corps, and Warren and Wright of the Fifth 
and Sixth corps were to hold themselves in readiness to 
assist if emergency required it. The ground over which 
Hancock had to pass to reach the enemy was ascending 
and heavily wooded to within two or three hundred 
yards of the breastworks. The storming column rushed 
over the intrenchment with loud cheers. "A desperate 
hand-to-hand conflict took place. The men of the two 
sides were too close together to fire, but used their guns 
as clubs" ; and so terrific was the death-grapple that at 
different times of the day the Confederate colors were 
planted on the one side of the works and the Stars and 
Stripes on the other. The angle of the works at which 
Hancock entered, and for which the savage fight of thq 
day was made, was a perfect Golgotha. In this angle 
of death the dead and wounded Confederates lay liter- 
ally in piles — men in the agonies of death groaning 



232 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

beneath the dead bodies of their comrades. On one of 
the few acres in the rear of their position lay not less 
than one thonsand Confederate corpses. 

Before it was breakfast-time on Thursday, the 12th, 
Hancock had captured two Confederate generals, 4,000 
prisoners, many colors, several thousand stand of arms, 
and between 30 and 40 cannon ; but the climax of as- 
tonishment was reached when, the hand-to-hand fight 
over, Hancock "turned the guns of the enemy against 
him." 

Nothing during the war had equalled the savage 
desperation of this struggle, which continued for more 
than fourteen hours ; and the history of the day after 
six o'clock in the morning may be summed up in a few 
words. Lee's whole army flung itself in five desperate 
eiforts to recapture the works he had lost, but every 
assault met a bloody repulse. 

General Francis A. Walker, Assistant Adjutant 
General of the Second Corps, gives this description of 
Thursday's battle: 

"ISTever before, since the discovery of gunpowder, 
had such a mass of lead been hurled into a space so 
narrow (the apex of the sailent) as that which now 
embraced the scene of combat. Large standing trees 
were literally cut off and brought to the ground by in- 
fantry fire alone. ... If any comparison can be 
made between the sections involved in that desperate 
contest, the fiercest and deadliest fighting took place at 
the West angle ever afterward known as 'The Bloody 



THE RACE TO SPOTTSYLVANIA—THE BATTLE 233 

Angle.' Here Wright's corps had taken post on coming 
up at six o'clock. So furious were the enemy's charges 
at this point that Wright, with two fresh divisions, was 
fain soon to call for reinforcements." 

"All day," says Walker, "the bloody work went on 
and still the men of the J^orth and of the South, now 
wrought to an inexpressible rage, were not gorged with 
slaughter. The trenches they had were then at once to 
be cleared of the dead to give the living a place to stand. 
All day long and even into the night, the battle lasted, 
for it was not till 12 o'clock, nearly 20 hours after the 
command 'Forward' had been given that the firing 
died down."* 



♦ It is worth while to take note of the gallantry and sacrifice of 
some of the troops engaged in the battle on Thursday, May 12th. 
The Fifteenth New Jersey, in the Sixth corps, crossed the Rapidan, 
May 4th, with 444 effective men. It lost but few in the Wilderness, 
but Spottsylvania consumed twenty-six per cent, of those engaged. 
When Thursday brought an end to the slaughter, the Fifteenth had 
only five ofiicers and one hundred and thirty-six men available for 
duty. One hundred and sixteen members of the 444 lost their lives 
in three days, and eighty died at the Bloody Angle on Thursday. In 
proportion to the number of men engaged, this was next to the 
heaviest loss sustained by any regiment during the Civil War. The 
only exception was the First Minnesota infantry at Gettysburg. On 
Thursday afternoon, July 2nd, while "patching up" a second line of 
battle, Hancock said to Colonel Colville of the First, "Do you see those 
colors? Take them." The colors were taken by the regiment in a 
few minutes, but of the 262 men engaged in the charge, 74 died In 
the shower of bullets, the mortality being 28 per cent, the highest on 
record. The greatest loss of life in any one brigade during the war 
was in the Vermont brigade of Getty's division of the Sixth corps, 
composed wholly of Vermont troops. Within a week, in the Wilder- 
ness and at Spottsylvania, it lost 266 killed and 1,299 wounded. 
While the First division of Hancock's famous Second corps lost more 
in killed and wounded than any other division in the Union army — 
the loss was 14,011 — it seems to have been ordained that General 
Getty's Second division of the Sixth corps should lose more men in 



234 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Thursday at Spottsylvania will be ever memorable 
in history as one of Grant's many remarkable achieve- 
ments. The strain upon him was not less severe than 
on Sunday at Shiloh when, with marvellous physical 
and mental endurance, he completely thwarted the pur- 
poses of Johnston and Beauregard in bringing on that 
battle. He personally assumed full responsibility in 
adopting plans to reach the quaking capital of the Con- 
federacy, leaving to Meade only the execution of the 
minor details. Tie wrote his own orders for battle, and 
many times his orders in battle. In a great emergency 
he wanted no intermediary. He did his own thinking, 
for no one else could think for him. He was sure that he 
stood on solid ground when he obeyed the dictates of his 
own judgment. He anchored his soul to one fact, that 
his strength lay in his faith and purpose, and therefore, 
on Thursday, he rode continuously from wing to wing of 
the blazing line that he might know from personal ob- 
servation if all were well with the army. It was a 
strange sight to see the "mysterious little man early in 
the morning, standing beside a fire that was almost 
quenched by the rain, within sound of the musketry, re- 
ceiving reports and directing the battle, but unable to 
perceive any of its movement, because shut out by trees." 

Once a friend said to Grant, "I have often wondered 
whether you ever slept during the terrible strain in the 
wilderness and Spottsylvania." To which the General 

one battle in killed and wounded than any other division in the war — 
Its casualties In the Wilderness on the 5th and 6th of May being 
480 killed and 2,318 wounded — a total of 2,798. 




(;i:xi:uAL grant in the wilderness campatgx. 

[From McCIure's Magazine] 



THE RACE TO 8P0TTSYLVANIA—THE BATTLE 235 

answered: "When I had made my plans for the next 
day I slept very peacefully, always." 

Grant was an inspiring force to the Army of the 
Potomac, which reflected the spirit of the Com- 
mander-in-chief. A representative of the ISTew York 
Evening Post was on the battle field at Spottsylvania, 
and in a dispatch to the paper he said : "The confidence 
of the army in Grant exceeds anything ever before wit- 
nessed in this field. Every soldier religiously and 
solemnly believes that the Lieutenant General means to 
smash the rebellion, and that he will do it ; and they tell 
with gusto of the novel methods he adopts to bring every 
man squarely up to the spirit of his own high purpose." 

On the night preceding Thursday's awful battle, 
Grant went out to the line of skirmishers, and passing 
slowly along, encouraged the men with generous praise. 
He said to them in a voice filled with kindness : "Boys, 
you have never had a fair chance at these Johnny rebs, 
and I mean that you shall have it. You can whip them, 
I am sure you can, and we will try it in the morning." 
The men cheered, and the story flying from regiment to 
regiment, sent every soldier into the battle with the 
faith in their leader, and a confidence in themselves 
which made them perfectly irresistible. 

The same devouring, unwearied energy Grant dis- 
played in pressing the enemy at Vicksburg, Chatta- 
nooga, and the Wilderness, was shown at Spottsylvania, 
where he had gained an advantage. Speaking of the 
results at this time Horace Greeley said: "Not a mo- 



236 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

ment's rest — a battle in the inorning, a victory, the 
enemy retreating, a pursuit — events succeeding each 
other by a law as irresistible as gravitation — a law 
which the little man of iron will imposes on the day." 
The crashing of masses against masses, which had gone 
on for days, did slowly, but surely — surely as the inexor- 
able fate which Lee's proud army found in the uncon- 
querable will of the silent man — tell against the Confed- 
erate foe. Inch by inch, and acre by acre, the ground 
upon which they stood was wrenched from their desper- 
ate hold. There was nothing more absolutely evident 
after Thursday than that Grant would some day compel 
the surrender of Lee's army. 

When Leslie Stephens, the noted English author and 
critic, visited this country shortly after the general 
election in 1868, he met several distinguished Ameri- 
cans, and in giving a characterization of some of them, 
he said of Grant : "If I were to knock my head against 
Grant's it would be like rapping it against hard Scotch 
granite." This well illustrates the kind of rapping Lee 
got from the time he met Grant in the Wilderness, and 
this is why the former was compelled to retire to a fresh 
position in the rear of that previously occupied and 
strongly intrenched at Spottsylvania. The energy and 
constancy with which Grant pursued Lee is quaintly 
told in the language of a Confederate officer captured 
in Hancock's assault on Thursday : "Has your General 
Grant got no heart at all ? He fights all the while as 



THE RAGE TO SPOTTSYLVANIA—THE BATTLE 237 

though there was nothiug else in the world for him to 
do." 

The summing up of the whole situation to the close 
of Spottsylvania can be done in five words — Lee falling / 
back, Grant advancing. 



M til a> 



XXX. 

THE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR. 

HEjST Grant had fought four hard bat- 
tles — two in the Wilderness and two at 
Spottsylvania — he seemed to despair of 
having an opportunity to meet Lee in an 
open field where the advantage of position and other 
conditions would be nearly equal. He therefore deter- 
mined to leave Lee at Spottsylvania, and make a flank 
movement, and thereby press his way towards Rich- 
mond. 

The rain which began during the battle of Thursday, 
the 12th, continued till Tuesday, the 17th; and the mud 
being hub-deep, it was almost impossible to move artil- 
lery or supply trains. In the meantime. Grant was ex- 
pecting reinforcements from Washington, the army hav- 
ing had no accessions since it moved from Culpeper, 
while its depletion to May 21st, in killed, wounded, and 
missing, was 27,500. 

It was at this period in the campaign that the reports 



TEE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 239 

from other portions of the great army under his com- 
mand were a surprise and disappointment to Grant. 
Sigel had been defeated at New Market, near Peters- 
burg. Butler had been driven from Drury's Bluff, six 
miles south from Richmond. And worst of all was the 
miserable failure of Banks' Red River expedition, a 
movement which should never have been made. While 
all this was quite discouraging, especially to the Ad- 
ministration, Grant's philosophy taught him that it was 
no time to repine, and he nerved himself to the business 
of directing a movement of the Potomac army by the 
left flank towards Richmond. An advance was ordered 
at midnight. May 20th, the objective point being the 
crossing of the !North Anna river, fifteen miles south- 
ward. It was always Grant's purpose to give Lee an 
opportunity to fight a square battle outside of intrench- 
ments, but Lee, having had two weeks' experience with 
his antagonist, preferred not to meet him in an open con- 
flict. When Grant began his march on the night of the 
20th, he left Wright and Burnside, of the Sixth and 
Ninth corps, "to keep up the appearance of an intended 
assault, and to hold Lee, if possible, in Spottsylvania 
while Hancock and Warren should get start enough to 
interpose between him and Richmond." "Lee had now a 
superb opportunity," says Grant, "to take the initiative 
either by attacking Wright and Burnside alone, or by 
following the Telegraph road and striking Hancock's 
and Warren's corps, or even Hancock's alone, before 
reinforcements could come up; but he did neither. 



240 GRANT, TEE MAN OF MYSTERY 

. . . He seemed really to be misled by my designs. 
. . . He never again had such an opportunity of 
dealing a heavy blow." 

Lee, finally discovering that Grant was moving in the 
direction of North Anna, immediately left his intrench- 
ments, and having the inside, and shorter lines, was able 
to place his entire army south of the North Anna before 
Grant could reach the river, and here he intrenched. 
When Grant arrived at the river he captured the outer 
works on the 24:th of May, but on the 25th the attempt 
of the Second corps to take the main works, which were 
almost impregnable, failed; and rather than slaughter 
his men when the chances of success were against him. 
Grant determined on another left flank movement, and 
as before — towards Richmond. If the advantage of 
fighting or not fighting were evenly balanced between 
the two armies. Grant was sure to fight, but in this in- 
stance, the advantage being altogether in favor of the 
enemy, he decided to outwit him. 

Before springing another surprise on Lee, Grant 
sent a dispatch to Halleck in which he said that there 
could not be a battle with the enemy outside his in- 
trenchments. He then adds : "I may be mistaken, but I 
feel that our success over Lee's army is already assured. 
The promptness and rapidity with which you have for- 
warded reinforcements have contributed largely to the 
feeling of confidence in our men, and to break down 
that of the enemy." "Nothing," say Nicolay and Hay, 
in their life of Lincoln, "like this had ever before been 



THE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 241 

received from a commander of the Army of the Poto- 
mac. A man was noAv in charge of affairs who respected 
the Government behind him more than the enemy in 
front." 

On Tuesday night, May 26th, Grant recrossed the 
Xorth Anna, and in this movement he showed himself 
master of one of the most difficult branches of military 
science— that of moving great bodies of troops with 
rapidity and precision. By Saturday night the Army of 
the Potomac was within twelve miles of Richmond. It 
had marched over thirty miles in less than three days, 
moved its supply trains of 4,000 wagons, and crossed 
two rivers in the face of the enemy. All the while 
Grant was unaware of the enemy's retreat from 
the mrth Anna ; and Lee did not learn of the flank 
movement until the 27th. Though greatly embarrassed 
by the necessity of providing against surprise. Grant 
moved his vast forces the thirty miles— which under the 
circumstances, was, up to that time, one of the most re- 
markable movements ever made by the Army of the 
Potomac. It was a hazardous piece of strategy, but not 
too hazardous for Grant's unbridled genius and de- 
termined courage. 

This was another of Grant's incomprehensible 
movements which bothered Lee, and being made with- 
out his knowledge or molestation, it called from Lincoln 
the quaint remark that "Grant had again climbed up 
garret and pulled the ladder after him." 

Grant's objective point was Cold Harbor, the key to 



242 GRAXr, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Richmond on the north line of the approach. It was 
the point of convergence of all the roads radiating 
either to Richmond or to the White House, his then 
base of supplies. The importance of Cold Harbor was 
fully appreciated by the enemy, and several days before 
Grant began to move in that direction, one of the Rich- 
mond papers said in a witty prophecy in reference to 
his favorite tactics: "Grant has grown so enamored of 
his left flank that he will probably work his way down 
towards the James river, and we shall have another 
decisive battle of Cold Harbor." By this the paper 
meant what the Federals called the battle of Gaines' 
Mills — that having been the position held by Fitz-John 
Porter's corps in the battle of June 27th, 1862, while 
Cold Harbor was held by Stonewall Jackson. 

The juncture of the North Anna and South Anna 
rivers, a few miles below the point where Grant as- 
saulted Lee's intrenchments on the 24th and 25th of 
May, forms the Pamunkey, and in moving southward he 
crossed the river near Hanover Town. When he placed 
his army on the south side of the Pamunkey, Grant had 
accomplished his third successful flank movement, and 
was Avithin twelve miles of the Confederate capital. 

Cold Harbor is six or seven miles southwest of the 
Pamunkey crossing, and was then occupied only by a 
small force of the enemy. But when he discovered that 
the army of the Potomac was moving towards that point, 
Lee rapidly began to concentrate his forces in that direc- 
tion, and, as usual, having the interior lines his route 



THE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 243 

was several miles shorter than Grant's. Sheridan had 
occupied Cold Harbor, from which he had repulsed 
the Confederate cavalry, and was instructed to hold 
it till the infantry could relieve him. But accidents 
are common in war, and usually occur at a most 
critical moment; and two incidents changed the for- 
tunes of the Union Army at Cold Harbor. '^Baldy" 
Smrth's Eighteenth Corps was ordered from White 
House to Cold Harbor, a distance of twenty-five miles. 
But by a blunder, which directed him to Newcastle in- 
stead of Cold Harbor, he did not reach his destination 
until three o'clock in the afternoon of June 1st, while 
he was expected in the morning, and by that time his 
12,500 men were worn out by their long and dusty 
march. This error, misdirecting Smith, came from 
Grant's headquarters, and was not discovered until 
Smith had marched several miles out of his way, when 
Grant hastened a staff officer to correct it. But valuable 
hours, sufficient to change the fate of a battle, had been 
lost in the counter march. Wright's Sixth and Smith's 
Eighteenth corps were pushed to the Harbor, and on 
June 1st relieved the gallant Sheridan from his perilous 
position. 

At six o'clock in the afternoon the first assault was 
made by Wright and Smith, and a portion of the outer 
works was captured including several hundred prison- 
ers ; but the second line of works was too formidable for 
the two corps to attack with success. Meade directed 
Hancock, who was on the extreme right, to hasten to the 



244 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

relief of Wright and Smith, and as the commander of 
the Second corps had never failed in any great exi- 
gency, he would not have failed at this time had it 
not been for an error committed by an officer of the 
engineer corps on Meade's staff. General Francis A. 
Walker, assistant adjutant general on Hancock's staff, 
makes the following comment on the costly error in his 
History of the Second Corjjs, but, presumably for char- 
ity's sake, he omits the name of the engineer : "Meade's 
order for Hancock to move promptly would have been 
fully carried out had it not been for the error of his staff 
officer, who undertook to conduct the column by a short 
cut through a wood road. After moving for some dis- 
tance the road was found to narrow gradually, until 
finally the guns were fairly caught between the trees 
and unable to move. In the darkness much confusion 
arose throughout the column, and the troops became 
mixed to a degree which made it difficult to straighten 
them out again. The night had been intensely hot and 
breathless, and the march through roads deep with dust, 
which arose in suffocating clouds — which occurred 
through the wrong direction given to the column — put it 
out of General Hancock's power to reach the left of the 
line at Cold Harbor at daybreak on Thursday, the 2nd." 
The importance of holding Cold Harbor was as keenly 
realized by Grant as by Lee, and therefore he designed 
to give battle on Thursday morning, but the lateness of 
Hancock's arrival defeated his plans, and the hour fixed 



THE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 245 

for a final assault was on Friday morning, June 3rd, at 
half-past four o'clock. 

The assault was made by the Second, Sixth, and 
Eighteenth corps. The men plunged into that raging 
hell of fire in the effort to drive the enemy from the pits. 
Much of the fighting was done within one hundred yards 
of each other. The two lines were swayed backward 
and forward under each other's blazing fire. It would 
require many pages to individualize the examples of 
courage and sacrifice among the officers and men of the 
assaulting corps. Men fell by the many hundreds in a 
few minutes. The third greatest loss sustained by any 
regiment in a single battle during the war in proportion 
to the number engaged, was in this attack. The Twenty- 
fifth Massachusetts in the Eighteenth corps, with 310 
men, went into battle with splendid energy, and in fif- 
teen minutes 74 officers and men went down to death and 
122 were wounded. The regimental line seemed to melt 
away before the terrific fire from the enemy's pits. It 
was a pathetic scene when, on Saturday morning, only 
4 officers and 62 men of the Twenty-fifth answered to 
the regimental roll call. 

When the first terrible climax of battle was over, the 
cold fact confronted all the commanders that the strong 
intrenchments of the enemy, and the approaches to his 
lines being exceedingly difficult, made any further at- 
tack a needless waste of life. Therefore, two hours and 
a half after the assault was made. Grant gave Meade 
orders to suspend the offensive the moment it became 



246 a RANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

certain that a second assault would be unsuccessful. 

The question uppermost in the mind of Meade and 
all other commanders was; would Grant renew the 
assault? But to those looking into the face of the 
mysterious Commander-in-chief for an answer to this 
momentous inquiry "there was no legible response. 
His was a face which tells no tales — a face impassive in 
victory or defeat, a face of stone — a sphinx-face !" 

Grant's calm and instinctive judgment presided 
amidst the most horrible confusion. He appreciated 
fully the enormity of the loss of life and the suffering 
of the thousands of wounded men. But the army was 
there to fight; and believing in the old adage that the 
man is thrice armed who has his quarrel just, Grant 
could say emphatically that he proposed to fight it out 
on that line. From the manoeuvers of previous com- 
manders on the Potomac, the idea prevailed in Lee's 
army that the Rapidan was the limit of Union advance ; 
and therefore, after the severe repulse at Cold Harbor, 
Lee supposed that Grant had exhausted his courage and 
hope and would retreat northward. But Grant was on 
the south of the Rapidan to fight his battle of faith, and 
not to return until victory was won. He was preparing 
to furnish Lee one of the greatest surprises of the war. 

Fighting ceased at Cold Harbor at seven-thirty 
o'clock in the morning, and during the forenoon Grant 
visited the corps commanders to see for himself "the 
different positions gained, and to receive their opinions 
as to the practicability of doing anything more in their 



THE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 247 

respective fronts." All except Warren of the Fifth 
corps thought nothing more could be done, and thus 
ended the battle of Cold Harbor.* 

The assault on the morning of the 3d of June has 
been so unsparingly condemned by certain military 
critics and so frankly acknowledged by Grant himself 
to have been in error, that l^icolay and Hay say, "we are 
apt to lose sight of the motive which prompted it. The 
right and left wings of Lee's army were unassailable 
from the nature of the ground ; the front only appeared 
possible to attack. Grant was unwilling to go to the 
south of the James without one more attempt to accom- 
plish the purpose with which he had opened the cam- 
paign. ... If he had succeeded at Cold Harbor 
he might have achieved that great result. He knew the 
task was difficult — it proved to be impossible." 

It ought to be remembered that as a rule the general 
who prosecutes an offensive campaign suffers greater 
losses than the enemy. Grant was always aggressive. 
It was not possible with him that retreat, or any inac- 
tion could form any part of his programme. But while 



* Grant's losses from the day he entered the Wilderness to the 
beginning of his famous left flank movement from Cold Harbor, June 
12, 1864, are given by the Adjutant General of the United States 
Army as follows : 

Wilderness — May 5th to the 7th, killed, 2,261 ; wounded, 8,785 ; 
missing, 2,902 — aggregate, 13,948. Spottsylvania — May 8th to the 
21st, killed, 2,271 ; wounded, 9,360 ; missing, 1,970 — aggregate 13,601. 
North Anna and vicinity — May 23d to the 31st, killed, 285 ; wounded, 
1,150 ; missing, 217 — aggregate, 1,652. Cold Harbor — June 1st to the 
12th, killed, 1,769 ; wounded, 6,752 ; missing, 1,537 — aggregate, 10,058. 
The total losses in the thirty-nine days were killed, 6,586, wounded, 
26,047, missing, 6,626 — aggregate, 39,259. 



248 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

the campaign from Culpeper to Cold Harbor was boldly, 
even daringly offensive, it was so conducted that in 
nearly every conflict the enemy was obliged to become 
the attacking party; and this plan of campaigning 
against Lee recalls this colloquy between two Roman 
generals : "If thou are a great general, come down and 
fight me." "If thou are a great general make me come 
down and fight thee." And it will be observed that 
four times out of five — for the army had fought on 
five distinct lines — Grant, by a single march, had made 
Lee come down and fight him. 

ISTo other plan than that adopted could have suc- 
ceeded ; or, to alter a characteristic phrase from Stan- 
ton, Gabriel would have been blowing his last horn be- 
fore the old tactics of the Army of the Potomac could 
have forced the surrender of Lee and his army. 

Swinton, who wrote much about the war, was by no 
means a partisan of Grant, but speaking of the mystery 
of his movements up to Cold Harbor, he said : "It is a 
fact which you may not have thought of, that Grant, in 
his advance on Richmond, has crossed every line of 
operations that has ever been planned with Richmond 
as the objective. He has adopted none, he has bisected 
all. He is at present on the line of McClellan's peninsu- 
lar campaign ; but will he remain on it ? May he not 
swing across that too ?" And he did. 

Grant had some cold and unjust critics in the North 
about this period in his Virginia campaign. Against 
their efforts to lower public estimation of his general- 



THE DEADLY AHtiAULT AT COLD HARBOR 249 

ship, it is a pleasure to note the interest with which 
many Europeans viewed his marvellously aggressive and 
successful campaign. The London Times, the organ of 
all the tories of Europe, as well as of England, could 
not believe in the possibility of Grant's success. But 
after the Wilderness battles it was constrained to say: 
"Grant is invincibly obstinate, he has uncontrolled com- 
mand, he has exacted the unreserved support of his gov- 
ernment, and he has seen the southern army retire be- 
fore him. He will perhaps renew his attacks upon Lee, 
but if he ever reaches Richmond with an effective army 
he will have achieved a miracle of success." And when 
the account of the battles at Spottsylvania had reached 
the "Thunderer" of British toryism, it was again candid 
enough to confess that while a single day of the battles 
of Grant in Virginia could be easily matched or excelled 
by the record of battles in the old world, there were \ 1 
never in the history of man four such battles fought as \ \ 
those comprised in seven successive days ending with the 
12th of May. 

So strangely did those battles impress the public 
mind, that the London correspondent of the New York 
Herald gave a clear idea of the pervading interest which 
existed in England relative to Grant as a commanding- 
military strategist and genius. The reputation of Lee 
was so exalted in England that any success over him by 
Grant was deemed marvellous. In the lobby of either 
house of Parliament, at any club in London, ten to one 
the first question asked would be: "Any news from 



250 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

America ?" or, "What do you think of Lee's position ?" 
The opinions and surmises as to Grant's performances 
and prospects were then more candid and sensible, so 
the correspondent thought, than at any time since the 
war began. No one then cared to bring ridicule upon 
himself by depreciating Grant's courage, strategy, and 
prospects. Even so great and conservative a journal as 
the London Spectator said if ever a general was enti- 
tled to have "Victory" inscribed on his banner, it was 
Grant, for his splendid fighting from the 5th to the 12th 
of May. And in addition to this, it was the opinion of 
an officer of high standing in the British army, that not 
since the art of war was practised, was better general- 
ship, higher skill, or more persistent military persever- 
ance in such circumstances ever known than that dis- 
played by Grant. 

No estimate of Grant's character is more defective 
than that which represents him as stolid, indifferent to 
the sacrifice of human life, winning victories by sheer 
dogged persistence and weight of numbers. He won his 
battles, as all great soldiers have done, by realizing diffi- 
culties, and meeting them as best he could with the men 
and guns at his command. While the attack on Friday 
morning, June 3d, may be a matter of legitimate contro- 
versy, these facts must be taken into account : "no oppor- 
tunity had been offered Grant to make an adequate re- 
connaissance of the line to ascertain whether it could be 
carried in front;" the consequences of a victory here 
were so momentous that he seemed to be justified in 



TEE DEADLY ASSAULT AT COLD HARBOR 251 

hazarding an assault; there is no foundation for the 
charge that the attack was inspired by mad recklessness 
and an insane determination ; it was the deliberate judg- 
ment of both Grant and Meade that the real strength of 
the enemy's works could be tested only by a grand as- 
sault, and both were un^villing to pass Cold Harbor by 
without a second attempt to capture the works. Grant 
would gladly have escaped battle on Friday if such a 
thing were consistent with his pledge to the President 
and the confidence placed in him by the country. Bloody 
as was the first month of his campaign in Virginia, it 
was the only road to Richmond.* 



* It is the opinion of some critics that Grant showed Inhumanity 
in delaying to take proper care of his wounded lying between the lines 
of the contending forces. But the official records do not sustain this 
condemnatory opinion. On the morning of the 5th, when Hancock 
informed Grant that there were still many wounded Union soldiers 
uncared for within the enemy's lines, the General at once sent a flag 
of truce to Lee asking permission to take charge of the wounded and 
bury the dead ; but It was forty-eight hours after Grant's humane 
proposition reached Lee before that officer's punctiliousness as to 
terms was satisfied, and when the lines were reached by the parties 
bearing the white flag, all but two of the wounded were dead. For 
the official records relating to this matter see Grant's Memoirs, and 
the Rebellion Records, Serial 69, pp. 639-39 ; and also Colonel Llver- 
more's contribution to the Military History, Society of Mass., volume 
5, p. 457. 




XXXI, 

ANOTHER LEFT FLANK— HOW PETERSBURG 
WAS LOST. 

TIE Richmond editor who said that Grant 
was enamoured of his left flank spoke more 
truthfnlly than he thonght. It was by these 
left flank movements that Lee was disap- 
j)ointed and out-generaled. When Grant crossed to the 
south of the Xorth Anna it was at a point where Lee 
did not expect; and when he recrossed the river it was 
at a place where Lee was not prepared to meet him. 
And the greatest surprise and disa2;)pointment came to 
Lee when Grant left Cold Harbor behind on Sunday, 
June 12th, and again took to his left flank. Where was 
he going ? Lee did not know. When was he going ? 
Lee did not learn until the mysterious little general was 
well on his way to the south of the James. 

General Edward P. Alexander, chief of artillery of 
Long-street's corps, says that the most natural movement 
for Grant to have made from Cold Harbor and the one 
Lee expected him to make, was that he would merely 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 253 

cross the Chickahominy and take a position on the north 
bank of the James at Malvern Hill. Bnt Grant's strat- 
egy and genius enabled him to formulate a movement 
more prodigious and hazardous than Lee believed him 
capable of conceiving or executing. His fixed purpose 
was to cross the James and move against Petersburg, 
and General Alexander says this movement, more than 
any other incident, constituted what may be called the 
crisis of the war. In the darkness of the night of June 
12th, 1864, the Army of the Potomac, 115,000 strong, 
began the most remarkable march in its history. 

Grant decided to cross to the south side of the James 
at Wilcox's Landing, between forty and fifty miles from 
Cold Harbor, at about the same distance in a southeast- 
erly direction from Richmond ; and nearly twenty miles 
east of Petersburg. This strange movement was en- 
tirely out of Lee's observation, as Grant planned that it 
should be, and General Alexander confesses that it in- 
volved the performance of a feat in transportation which 
has never been equalled, and might well be considered 
impossible without days of vexatious delay. But the 
army marched the distance and crossed the James with- 
out a mishap, and in the incredibly short space of three 
days; and while this bold movement was being made, 
Lee, with Longstreet's and Hill's corps, lay idle in 
the woods on the north side of the James. 

General Alexander performed conspicuous service in 
Lee's command, and as he is a careful and candid critic, 



254 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

his estimate of Grant's gigantic scheme to deceive the 
Confederate commander by crossing to the south of 
the James with such an immense army is worth quoting : 

''The Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth corps on the (north) 
bank of the James awaited the construction of the great- 
est bridge which the world has seen since the days of 
Xerxes. At the point selected the river was 2,100 feet 
wide, ninety feet deep, and had a rise and fall of tide of 
four feet, giving a very strong current. The approaches 
having been prepared on each side, construction was be- 
gun at four o'clock p. m. on the 14th of June by Major 
Dunne, simultaneously at both ends. (101 pontoons 
formed the bridge which was completed by General 
Benham). In eight hours the bridge was finished, . 
. . and for forty-eight hours the vast column of ar- 
tillery and infantry poured across without cessation, 
and at midnight of the 16th, Grant's entire army was 
south of the James." 

One of the most remarkable incidents of this re- 
markable movement, was the singular condition of mind 
in which it placed Lee. At this time Beauregard was at 
Petersburg defending it with only a small force. On 
the 15th of June he reported to Lee, who was then at 
Drury's Bluff, south of Kichmond, that Grant was ap- 
proaching Petersburg and he begged for reinforcements. 
But Lee was so amazed by the report that he would not 
believe it. Fortunately, the RehelUon Records put the 
story of Lee's skepticism in an official form. He tele- 
graphed Beauregard: 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 255 

"June 16tli, 10:30 a. m, I do not know the position 
of Grant's army and cannot strip the north bank (the 
James) of troops." 

Beauregard, having had an unpleasant experience 
with Grant at Shiloh, became nervous and made another 
plea for reinforcements, to which Lee responded: 

"June 17th, 12 M. Until I get more definite infor- 
mation of Grant's movements I do not think it prudent 
to draw more troops to this side of the river." 

But Beauregard was insistent despite the incredulity 
of Lee, and with promptness and energy he called for 
more reinforcements. It was extremely difficult for 
the astute commander of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia to imagine in what direction Grant had gone. 
Only five days before, the advance picket lines of the 
contending armies were not more than 300 yards apart ; 
and for Grant to call in his pickets and move his great 
army out of the immediate presence of an alert enemy 
and take a line of march unknown to Lee or any of his 
generals, was the most remarkable of all the strategic 
movements of the war. The bewilderment in which 
Lee was placed by the report that some of Grant's troops 
were in front of Petersburg, is shown in his third dis- 
patch inquiring about Grant, sent to his son General 
William H. Fitzhugh Lee, who then had a cavalry com- 
mand at Malvern Hill : 

"Clay House, June 17, 1864, 3 :30 p. m. 

"Push after the enemv and endeavor to ascertain 



256 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYtiTERY 

what has become of Grant's army. Inform General 
Hill. R. E. Lee." 

Three hours after Beauregard made his third re- 
quest for more troops he sent the following doleful dis- 
patch to Lee : "The increasing number of the enemy in 
my front . . . will compel me to fall back within 
a shorter line which I will attempt to-night ... I 
may have to evacuate the city (Petersburg) very short- 
ly." But Lee was as hard to convince as was doubting 
Thomas. He wanted an ocular witness of Grant's army 
having crossed the James river before he could believe 
that such an extraordinary movement was possible. So 
within an hour after the dispatch had been sent his son, 
Lee asked Beauregard : "Has Grant been seen crossing 
the James ?" 

In the meantime Beauregard was putting forth all 
his strength to hold Petersburg against the encroach- 
ment of the Federal forces ; but having lost some outer 
lines, and no fresh troops coming to his relief, he took 
more radical measures to convince Lee that the situation 
in Petersburg was becoming desperate. General Alex- 
ander says that Beauregard finally sent three of his 
staff officers to Lee, one after the other, within two 
hours, "with details about the prisoners captured from 
different corps of the Federal army, with stories told of 
their marches since leaving Cold Harbor on the 12th." 
It was not until after midnight of the 17th, that the 
first staff officer found Lee, lying on the ground near 



now PETERSBURG WAS LOST 257 

Driiry's Bluff. He "seemed very placid," says Alexan- 
der, "and heard my messages, but still said he 
thought Beauregard mistaken in supposing that any 
large part of Grant's army had crossed the river." Lee 
finally ordered reinforcements to Petersburg just in the 
nick of time to save the city from falling into the hands 
of the Union forces ; but it was the persistency of Beau- 
regard in calling for troops to defend Petersburg that 
gave truth to the saying that he, and not Lee, saved the 
Confederacy from collapse in the summer of 1864. 

Grant's left flank movement across the James was 
his masterpiece of strategy. Its boldness and brilliancy 
of conception have been duly acknowledged by the ablest 
military critics of this and other countries. While his 
Vicksburg campaign is regarded by some — particularly 
by General Alexander — the most brilliant exhibition of 
strategy of the whole war, it must be remembered that 
Vicksburg had its advantages. Grant's army was then 
comparatively small. He was in personal command of 
all the troops. There was hardly a possibility that any 
fatal blunder could be committed at the very point of 
success as at Petersburg. At the latter place it seemed 
impossible for the Commander-in-chief to provide 
against the mistaken jvidgment of some of his subordi- 
nates ; and whether Grant w^as in any wise responsible 
for any part of the distressing failure and the heavy 
losses in the first attempt to capture Petersburg, the 
reader must judge for himself after carefully reading 
both sides of the controversy. 



258 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Never during the Civil War was such a golden op- 
portunity presented to the Federal army to win so im- 
portant a victory at so small a cost as the capture of 
Petersburg, on the 15th of June, 1864. That the city 
was not taken on that day, or at least on the 16th, when 
the Union forces were four times greater in number 
than those of the enemy, was the most grievous disap- 
pointment that came to Grant in his military career. 

There has been much controversy over the loss of 
Petersburg at the time referred to, and as the reputation 
of neither Grant nor Meade would suffer by the publi- 
cation of the facts bearing upon the subject, it is strange 
on the one hand that the Memoirs and most of the 
friendly biographers of Grant have given either a 
meagre account thereof or have practically ignored it ; 
and on the other hand, it is unfortunate that some of 
Meade's sympathetic friends have entered into the dis- 
cussion with a bias and severity of temper not warranted 
by the facts. 

Human nature always craves for the reason of 
things which are of importance ; and it is all-important 
to know why Grant failed at Petersburg, because the 
mistakes and failures at that time postponed the fall of 
Richmond and the collapse of the Confederacy, from 
the summer or autumn of 1864 to the spring of 1865. 
To give the reader an intelligible account of the dis- 
jointed and disconnected affairs of the 15th, and if pos- 
sible, to disentangle the widely varying statements con- 
cerning the events which led to the tragedy immediately 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 259 

following the historic crossing of the James, require 
somewhat expansive details for which there is no space 
in this volume. 

There is no doubt that Grant would have been 
pleased if the honor of taking Petersburg could have 
fallen to the lot of Butler, who had been unfortunate in 
his operations south of Richmond. On the 14th of June 
Grant visited him at Bermuda Hundred for the purpose 
of directing an immediate attack against Petersburg 
with "Baldy" Smith's Eighteenth corps (a part of But- 
ler's command), Butler then thought — so it is reported 
— that "he could ride over the enemy's fortifications on 
horseback" without serious molestation. Grant had es- 
tablished his headquarters at City Point, ten miles up 
the James from Wilcox's Landing, and a few miles be- 
low Bermuda Hundred, that he might be at a conven- 
ient distance between the commands of Meade and But- 
ler. 

If Grant had formulated a definite plan for the cap- 
ture of Petersburg, he certainly did not communicate it 
to Meade, nor does he include it in the Memoirs. But 
what followed after the consultation with Butler on the 
night of the 14th of June, I give in Grant's own words : 

"I communicated to Meade in writing the directions 
I had given him to cross Hancock's corps at midnight 
and push forward in the morning (the 15th) to Peters- 
burg, halting them, however, at a designated point until 
they could hear from Smith. I also informed Meade 
that I had ordered rations for Hancock's corps. 



260 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

The rations did not reach him, however, and Hancock, 
while he got all his troops over during the night, re- 
mained until half past ten in the hope of receiving 
them. He then moved without them, and on the road 
received a note from Smith asking him to come on. This 
seems to be the first information that Hancock had re- 
ceived of the fact that he was to go to Petersburg, or 
that anything particular was expected of him, otherwise 
he would have been there by 4 o'clock in the afternoon." 

Here begins the misunderstanding connected with 
the ill-fated June the fifteenth. Grant says the direc- 
tions were given to Meade in writing, while Badeau, 
Grant's military secretary, in his Military History of 
U. S. Grant, says the directions were given in a conver- 
sation on the night of the 14th. Further, the quotation 
from the Memoirs contains a seeming reflection upon 
Meade, to the effect that the orders given him relative 
to the movement of the Second corps had not been prop- 
erly communicated to Hancock. When the latter was 
criticised by newspaper correspondents, and the Secre- 
tary of War, for not reaching Petersburg at an earlier 
hour than 6:30 p. m. (June 15th), Meade said on June 
26th: "Had Hancock and myself been apprised in time 
of the contemplated movement against Petersburg, and 
the necessity of cooperation, he could have been pushed 
much earlier to the scene of operation." 

Although the Memoirs seem to involve Meade in an 
error in not communicating to Hancock Grant's orders 
as to his movement towards Petersburg (the orders were 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 261 

incapable of execution), the Military History of U. S. 
Grant, already referred to, and which was reckoned 
official by Grant himself, says: "Hancock moved ex- 
actly as he had been ordered. . . . Grant found no 
fault with Meade or Hancock, and so informed them. 
To the intimation that they had not been properly in- 
formed as to his plans (to attack Petersburg) Grant 
made no reply." 

Upon the pages of history no one can be found with 
a stronger sense of justice, mingled with rare wisdom, 
or who more earnestly and successfully endeavored to 
possess a conscience void of offence towards his fellows, 
than Grant. He never designedly became the author of 
confusion or misunderstanding; and this can be justly 
said of Meade during his campaign with Grant in Vir- 
ginia. 

Shortly after the strange events of which I am writ- 
ing, the Commander-in-chief paid deserved and glowing 
tributes to Meade and Hancock for their services in the 
Petersburg campaign, and it is regrettable that those 
tributes, so warmly given and so richly deserved, do not 
appear on the pages of the Memoirs which treat of the 
attacks on that city. But it must be borne in mind that 
when Grant wrote the volumes which "breathe so much 
sincerity and try as best they can to give the whole 
truth," the "hand of death was upon him and he was 
passing through the furnace of pain;" and the wonder 
is that so few errors of commission or omission are 
found in that great work. Those warm compliments. 



262 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

uttered when the scene of that terrible conflict was fresh 
in his mind, should have been made a part of the chap- 
ter on Petersburg, that full justice might have been 
done those two brave soldiers, who, like Grant himself, 
and Sherman, Sheridan, Warren, Humphreys, Raw- 
lins, Gibbon, Birney, and others, died in the prime of 
life because of exhaustion of their vital forces during 
the war. 

The story of the '^'misunderstandings and miscar- 
ryings" which led to the defeat of the main purpose of 
the movement to the south of the James — so skilfully 
planned and brilliantly executed — is one of the most 
painful in the Civil War history. Those who wish to 
make the attempt to clear from complication the vary- 
ing accounts of the work of June the fifteenth, are re- 
ferred to the Military History of U. S. Grant ; Bache's 
and Pennypacker's lives of Meade ; The History of the 
Second Army Corps by General Francis A. Walker, 
assistant Adjutant General of the Corps ; The Virginia 
Campaign, '64 and '65, by General Andrew A. Humph- 
reys ; and the ofiicial correspondence, orders, and reports 
in relation to Petersburg, in the Fortieth volume, series 
1, part 2, of the Records of the Rehellion. To anyone 
who is interested in the lives of Grant, Meade, and Han- 
cock and particularly in the story of the 15th of June, 
"the black Wednesday in the calendar of the gallant 
Hancock and his superb fighting corps," a careful exam- 
ination of those authorities is worth while. Particular 
emphasis should be placed on the testimony of Meade, 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 263 

Hancock, Humphreys, and Walker, all of whom actively 
participated in the Petersburg campaign, especially as 
the works of the two latter stand unchallenged among 
unprejudiced historians on all material points. 

"Unfortunately," says General Walker, "the misun- 
derstandings and mistakes of the 15th were carried into 
the 16th permitting the Confederates to strengthen and 
finally confirm their hold on Petersburg, which the ex- 
cellent strategy of Grant had, for thirty-six hours, 
placed fairly at the mercy of the Union army." The 
16th w^as the anniversary of the chief blunder of N^apol- 
eon at Waterloo which caused his star of destiny to set 
forever. While there was no Grouchy in the Eighteenth 
Corps or in the Army of the Potomac, there were delays, 
mistakes, and disjointed movements which vastly in- 
creased the difficulty of successfully assaulting the works 
at Petersburg. 

Circumstances seemed strangely to combine against 
the purposes of Grant and to defeat the best laid plans 
of Meade and Hancock to seize Petersburg, which would 
have resulted in driving Lee out of Virginia. Between 
the evening of the 15th and the forenoon of the 16th, 
the enemy's forces behind the works had been augmented 
to 14,000, and Meade's army, then up at Petersburg, 
was not less than 50,000. 

While Hancock was unacquainted with the real 
character and position of the Confederate works, and 
had but little time to make a reconnaissance, as early as 
2 o'clock on the morning of the 16th he issued explicit 



264 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

orders to his division commanders to attack the enemy 
in their respective points, on or before daylight — pre- 
ferably before. But fate seemed inexorable; and "no 
vigorous effort appears to have been made at daylight 
to carry out Hancock's instructions." The losses during 
the day were heavy, and darkness closed upon the scene 
without any encouraging gains having been made. 

A great misfortune of the 17th — a day as full of 
discouragement as the 15th or the 16th — was the neces- 
sity of relieving Hancock from the command of the 
Second Corps. After forty days of continuous riding 
in the saddle, and taking the lead in all the bloody bat- 
tles and assaults from Culpeper to Petersburg, the 
severe wound he had received at Gettysburg broke out 
afresh and caused him intense suffering, and the com- 
mand of the corps was temporarily given to General 
Birney. 

Saturday, the 18th, saw the severest fighting of the 
week. It is claimed by the Confederates that on their 
side it was not a day of battle, but only one of demon- 
stration and reconnaissance. "!None of their reinforce- 
ments were engaged, the only fighting done having been 
by Hoke's division and Wise's brigade, who, under 
Beauregard, had already borne the whole brunt of the 
four days and three nights." And General Alexander 
adds : "No army could ask for a more favorable chance 
to destroy its antagonists than was here presented (to 
the Federals). Their whole army was at hand and the 
reinforcements of Longstreet's corps, even now coming 



now PETERSBURG WAS LOST 265 

to Beauregard, were not over 12,000 men and were still 
about three to five hours away. The little which was 
accomplished during the whole day is striking evidence 
of the condition to which the Federal army had now 
been reduced." 

Grant being at City Point on Saturday, Meade was 
in command of all the troops engaged. He had set his 
heart on capturing the city, and determined to make one 
supreme effort to succeed. He had some 55,000 men, 
and behind the works Beauregard could not have had 
more than 30,000 up to Saturday noon. Meade firmly 
believed that with such superior force, in a simultaneous 
movement of all the corps, he would win. He therefore 
ordered a general assault to begin at precisely twelve 
o'clock. But for one reason or another the commanders 
were not prepared to make a concerted movement at the 
hour named, and the delay greatly inured to the ad- 
vantage of the enemy. While the assaults, made in the 
afternoon, were vigorous and persistent, though some- 
what disjointed, they failed to break the enemy's lines. 
It was a day of great sacrifice ; and it became apparent 
to Meade at 5 o'clock in the afternoon that any further 
attempt to assault the enemy's works would result only 
in a useless loss of life, and no more attacks were made. 

Grant was confident that Meade had done all that 
any general could do to carry the day; and he recog- 
nized the fact, particularly on "black Saturday," that 
Meade was "the incarnation of splendid vigor, courage, 
and energy." And immediately after the final assault 



266 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

on that day he sent a dispatch to him to the effect that 
he was perfectly satisfied that all had been done that 
could have been done, and ordered that more spades and 
fewer rifles be used, and by this means the long siege of 
Petersburg began. 

But the "divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew 
them how we will," had ordained that Grant's disap- 
pointment and mortification over the affairs at Peters- 
burg should not end with the last assault on the 18th 
of June. 

Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, of the Forty- 
eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, a practical coal miner, 
as were all the men of his regiment, conceived and care- 
fully thought out the bold plan of tunnelling under the 
enemy's most important works, and planting a mine 
which, when exploded, would spread such consterna- 
tion among the Confederates as would enable the Fed- 
eral troops to storm the fortification easily and capture 
the city. Grant says that the plans of the tunnel were 
submitted to Meade and himself and that both agreed 
as to the practicability of the scheme; but the biogra- 
phers of Meade say that he had no faith in the measure, 
but when it was adopted he took every precaution to 
overcome the difficulties which he clearly foresaw. 
The work began in front of Burnside's corps during the 
last week in June, and although it was over 500 feet 
long, and contained many galleries it was completed on 
the 23d of July. It was charged with 8,000 or 10,000 
pounds of powder, and was the longest siege tunnel 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 267 

ever run. Both Grant and Meade were at Burnside's 
headquarters at this time, personally looking after some 
of the more important details that everything might 
work exactly as they would have it — each going to the 
limit of his power to bring about a brilliant conclusion 
to the unique affair. 

The hour appointed for the springing of the mine 
was 3 :30 Saturday morning, July 30th. It was an 
hour of great expectation. Grant and Meade seemed 
confident that an open door had been found through 
which the Federal troops could march victoriously into 
Petersburg. The parting of the fuse caused a weari- 
some delay of one hour and fifteen minutes, but when 
the connection was made and the fire applied quickly 
there came a great ground swell, with a trembling as 
if it had been the work of an earthquake. In a moment 
more came the terrific explosion. Huge masses of earth 
were lifted as easily "as a child would toss a marble." 
Men, guns, cannon, caissons, and timbers belched forth 
high in air and descended immediately around the crater 
(150 feet long, 90 feet wide, and 30 feet deep) in a 
shapeless, chaotic mass. 

Simultaneously with the explosion, 150 heavy can- 
non, mortars, and field pieces opened a terrific cannon- 
ade upon the terrified and almost panic-stricken enemy. 
It was the special business of Burnside to use the Ninth 
Corps in storming the enemy's works immediately fol- 
lowing the explosion. Explicit instructions had been 
given him by Meade as to what to do and how to do it ; 



2G8 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

with those instructions promptly carried out the way 
was clear to the heart of the city. "But no human fore- 
sight can guard against the machinations of stupidity." 
Among other things, all corps commanders had been 
ordered to remove all obstructions between them and the 
enemy's works, that nothing might prevent the storming 
column from making a rapid and effective advance. 
Four divisions had been selected by Burnsidc to storm 
the works, one of which was colored. But for reasons 
which seem incredible, he did not obey this vital order ; 
and the division which was appointed to lead in the as- 
sault was the least capable, on account of the inefficiency 
of its commander — General Ledlie — to perform such an 
important service. 

The remainder of the story is appalling evidence of 
how the movements went contrary to the well laid 
plans of Grant and Meade. In advancing, Ledlie's di- 
vision huddled into the crater, and the commander 
sought refuge in a bomb-proof. The other divisions 
found difficulty in pushing forward because of obstacles 
which Burnside had neglected to remove, and of the 
crowding of too many troops in a limited space. If they 
had spread out to the right and left flanks as they had 
been ordered to do before the movement began, the 
enemy's works could have been easily captured. 

From the moment of the explosion the affair was a 
bungle, a stupendous failure ; more than that, a crime. 
The delay in making the assault as ordered, gave the 
Confederates ample time to recover from their panic- 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 269 

stricken condition and to reinforce their lines in front 
of the storming column ; and thus for the third time, in 
Grant's effort to capture Petersburg in the gloomy sum- 
mer of 1864, the fates were against him. After many- 
vain attempts to drive the enemy from his works with 
troops more or less disorganized. Grant made an inspec- 
tion of the situation, and when he saw how little had 
been gained and how great were the losses, he concluded 
that any further efforts to capture the city would result 
only in a useless sacrifice of life, and at 2 o'clock in the 
afternoon the strange catastrophe of affairs at Peters- 
burg came to an end. 

According to the Medical Department, 4008 Union 
soldiers were taken from the ranks on that day, 419 
killed, 1,670 wounded, and 1,910 missing, all due, to 
use Grant's own words, "to the inefficiency on the part 
of the corps commander (Burnside) and the incompe- 
tency of the division commander (Ledlie) who was sent 
to lead the assault." 

Strange indeed is the story of the tragedy at Peters- 
burg. In blasted hopes and disaster there is nothing 
more painful in the history of the Civil War. One 
month before the attack on the 15th of June the city 
was practically defenceless, and Generals W. F. Smith 
and Q. A. Gillmore, both serving under Butler in the 
Army of the James, recognizing that Petersburg, next 
to Richmond, was the most strategic point in the Con- 
federacy, asked permission of Butler to move upon the 
city and hold it permanently. They were then only 



270 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

three miles from the iingarrisoned place, and could have 
taken it with little or no loss. But Butler, whom Hos- 
mer in his Outcome of the Civil War calls the "Grouchy 
of the Wilderness campaign," curtly refused. 

The Grant of Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chatta- 
nooga, and of the campaign which culminated in the 
miracle of moving his army to the south of the James, 
on the morning of the 15th of June would have rationed 
Hancock's corps of 20,000 (not 28,000 as is often er- 
roneously stated), and marched the sixteen miles to 
Petersburg in time to capture the city before the setting 
of the sun. But no general in the army was more con- 
siderate towards his subordinates than Grant. Because 
of this he kept some of them in position when they 
should have been relieved from duty for the good of the 
service. It was only when bearing a load of tremendous 
responsibility and the exigencies of the case demanded 
prompt action, that he deprived them of their com- 
mands. 

Butler, "for reasons other than military," had been 
placed in command of the James before Grant took 
command of all the armies, and in this instance it 
seemed advisable to the Commander-in-chief to reckon 
with him ; believing, no doubt from Butler's statements 
as to the works at Petersburg, that the capture of the 
city by Smith alone would come as a joy as well as a 
surprise to Meade and his army. But the misinforma- 
tion furnished Grant, at Bermuda Hundred, on the 
night of the 14th of June, both as to the strength of the 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 271 

enemy's works and the route Hancock should take 
in marching to Petersburg, was the direct cause of 
the unsuccessful assaults which consumed an army of 
14,585 Union men — 1,298 being killed, 7,474 wounded, 
and 1,814 missing, from the 15th to the 18th of June. 

The mystery of Grant's character did not stand out 
more impressively at Shiloh, Vicksburg, or Chattanooga 
than thus far during the Virginia campaign. Under 
other commanders "Lee had seen the Army of the Poto- 
mac retreat from his front four times, once from the 
Peninsula, once across the Rappahannock, in 1862 ; 
and once again across the Rappahannock, and once 
across the Rapidan in 1863." But Lee never saw Grant 
lose an inch of ground. From the hour of crossing the 
Rapidan on May 4th, he went steadily, sturdily for- 
ward, repelling, and impelling attacks; assaulting 
(when to him it seemed necessary) strongly fortified 
positions, effecting difficult and daring flank move- 
ments, and all this with a stern quietude that indicated 
reserve force and a consciousness of powers adapted to 
almost any emergency. 

For this campaign, made with such unconquerable 
obstinacy, resoluteness, and terrible impressiveness, and 
which sounded the doom of the Confederacy, Grant was 
severely criticised by many for what seemed to them to 
be a reckless waste of human life. But if the Army of 
the Potomac under his command were to go forward, 
never again to retreat, he could not escape the Wilder- 
ness nor Spottsylvania ; and Cold Harbor was one of 



272 GRAS'T, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

those costly experiments which war sometimes makes 
necessary. 

The whole movement southward from the Rapidan 
so completely approached the marvellous in matchless 
persistence and unequalled strategy, that in this con- 
nection a quotation from Colonel Thomas L. Livermore 
of Massachusetts, a careful writer of Civil War history, 
is of interest : "From the camps north of the Rapidan to 
the James, the army moved over one hundred miles, 
crossing three rivers in the face of the enemy, making 
nine flank movements without a miscarriage or a sur- 
prise. The sick and wounded, excepting a few who per- 
ished between the lines, were taken up and transported 
to the rear with the most perfect method of humanity. 
The army was well fed, well clothed, and well sheltered. 
The daily percentage of sick, in May, was less than in 
June, and was almost the same as it was in camp in 
April. A supply train of 4,000 wagons and a long 
train of reserve artillery were so well protected in their 
movements that not a gun, or wagon, or an animal was 
taken by the enemy ; and not a dollar's worth of mater- 
ial was abandoned or destroyed to save it from the 
enemy." 

During the movement from the Rapidan to Peters- 
burg, with all its terrible strain and hardship. Grant's 
physical, mental, nervous, temperamental strength was 
little less than marvellous. His conduct at this time was 
an exhibition of self-mastery of which only the highest 
type of manhood is capable. Though sorely disap- 



HOW PETERSBURG WAS LOST 273 

pointed at the failure to take Petersburg, be was able 
to repel discouragement, and in the face of severe and 
unjust criticism by his enemies, his indomitable mind 
enabled him to manifest resolute quietness; and when 
it became evident to him that the city could not be taken 
by assault or mine explosions, he took a calm survey of 
the situation south of Richmond and of the operations 
of the armies in other departments, and immediately 
began to plan campaigns which would make the down- 
fall of the Confederacy inevitable. 




XXXII. 

IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. 

AELY in the campaign of 1864 Grant saw 
the necessity of driving the enemy from 
the Valley of the Shenandoah, the most fer- 
tile region in Virginia, about 150 miles in 
extent from north to south, and varying from 30 to 40 
miles in width. It is bounded on the east by the Blue 
Ridge, a continuation of the South Mountain of Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland, and its western limit is the 
North Mountain, a part of the main chain of the Alle- 
ghanies. The valley has been called "secession's fertile 
incubator and truck garden". The southern end being 
a considerable distance west from Richmond and thence 
running northeasterly toward Washington, it was the 
favorite manoeuvering ground of the enemy early in 
the war, and furnished the Confederates an open and 
protected road for the invasion of the North. 

General Franz Sigel, who was in command in this 
district, under instruction from Grant moved up the 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 275 

Shenandoali and engaged the enemy under Brecken- 
ridge at New Market, May 15th, but was entirely de- 
feated, losing artillery, supplies, and a thousand prison- 
ers. He was relieved of his command and General 
David Hunter was chosen for the place. On the 20th, 
and again on the 25th of May, Grant wrote to Halleck 
urging that Hunter press forward and destroy canals 
and railroads to prevent Lee's army from getting fur- 
ther supplies. Hunter marched rapidly up the river, 
engaged the enemy near Staunton, and completely 
routed him, taking 1500 prisoners ; but Lee poured re- 
inforcements into the Valley and Hunter found it nec- 
essary to retreat to the westward and make a long cir- 
cuit back to Harper's Ferry. 

This left the Valley open, and General Jubal Early, 
in command of a considerable force, moved northward 
with the intention of threatening Washington and com- 
pelling Grant either to make a premature attack upon 
the works at Petersburg or practically to abandon the 
siege. So rapidly did Early move that by the 10th of 
July his camp was but a few miles from the capital. 
A careful survey on the following day convinced him 
that the crowning achievement of the war was possibly 
within his grasp; but before his orders could be exe- 
cuted he saw to his dismay the works which had been 
but feebly manned filled by fresh bodies of defenders, 
so that he was compelled to withdraw. It was a bold 
move and caused much anxiety in Washington and at 
the North. So near to the city did the enemy come 



276 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

that a skirmish took place on the 11th in full view of 
the capital, and was witnessed by President Lincoln, 
who watched the progress of the fight until an officer 
fell mortally wounded within three feet of him. 

As soon as Grant knew of the gravity of the situ- 
ation he sent parts of the Sixth (Wright's) and the 
jSTineteenth Corps to the relief of the capital. They 
arrived in the nick of time and made Early's with- 
drawal necessary. It was the desire of the President 
that the flying enemy should be pursued. If an aggres- 
sive man had been in charge, the force might have been 
annihilated ; but Halleck was timid and irresolute, and 
Grant was too far away to feel certain as to what course 
to pursue, although he had, on July 14th, urged a pur- 
suit "by veterans, militiamen on horseback, and every- 
thing that could be got to follow, to eat out Virginia, 
clear and clean as far as they go, so that crows flying 
over it for the balance of the season will have to carry 
their provender with them." But messages and orders 
crossed each other and produced confusion, so that 
Early, finding that he was not pursued, turned and 
drove the Union forces across the Potomac and sent a 
part of his command to terrorize the small towns in 
Maryland and on the Pennsylvania border, exacting 
heavy ransoms or applying the torch. 

It did not require the genius of Grant to perceive 
that the situation required a competent and aggressive 
leader in the upper Potomac; but it did require the 
genius of Grant to select such a leader. In that sec- 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 277 

tion of the field of war, confusion and disorder reigned. 
Grant, being at City Point, where it was necessary for 
him to establish his headquarters, could not attend per- 
sonally to the details of the upper and lower Potomac 
at the same time. Things were going wrong in the 
northern part of the field, chiefly because the Adminis- 
tration was unwilling to adopt promptly the important 
measures he had urgently recommended. 

The general whom Grant most trusted and loved 
was Sherman, and next to him was the gallant McPher- 
son, whose death in the battle before Atlanta on July 
22nd, 1864, caused Grant unspeakable grief. After that 
calamity, Sheridan took McPherson's place in Grant's 
confidence and affection, and there he reigned without 
a rival till death parted them. Therefore, when Grant 
wanted a general to put an end to the disturbed condi- 
tion of things in and about Washington, and to com- 
mand all the troops in the field which were to operate 
against Early and drive him and his army from the 
valley of the Shenandoah, he promptly appointed Sheri- 
dan. 

The event which placed Early at the tender mercy 
of Sheridan occurred on the last day of July, and on 
the following day the latter met Grant at City Point, 
where the helplessness of the authorities at Washington 
to remove the troublesome condition of matters in the 
upper Potomac was talked over in detail. Each under- 
stood the other thoroughly, and the all-important fea- 
ture of the affair was that Grant's confidence that Sheri- 



278 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

dan would become master of the Shenandoah was as 
unshaken as the foundation of the Blue Eidge. On 
the 2nd of August Sheridan departed for Washington. 
Preceding him by one day was a dispatch from Grant 
to Halleck which read as follows: 

"I am sending General Sheridan for temporary duty whilst 
the enemy is being expelled from the border. Unless General 
Hunter is in the field in person I want Sheridan put in command 
of all the troops in the field, with instructions to put himself 
south of the enemy and follow him to the death. Wherever the 
enemy goes, let our troops go also." 

When Sheridan reached Washington to receive in- 
structions from Halleck, the Secretary of War objected 
to the appointment of so young a man for so great a 
command and so large a responsibility, and the Presi- 
dent was of like mind ; "but now," to quote Lincoln's 
remarks to Sheridan, "since Grant has ploughed round 
the difficulties of the situation by picking you out to 
command the boys in the field, I feel satisfied w^ith what 
has been done and hope for the best." 

An incident of remarkable interest is connected 
with the dispatch which Grant sent to Halleck. Presi- 
dent Lincoln happened to see the dispatch, and not at- 
tempting to conceal his disgust with the war office in 
its management of the operations in the upper Potomac, 
he went to the expense of violating all official etiquette 
by immediately sending to Grant the following charac- 
teristic message: 

"Washington, D. C, Aug. 3, 1864. 
"Lieut.-Oen. Grant, City Point, Va.: 

"I have seen your dispatch, in which you say, 'I want Sheri- 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 279 

dan put in command of all the troops in the field, with instruc- 
tions to put himself south of the enemy and follow him to the 
death. Wherever the enemy goes, let our troops go also." This, 
I think, is exactly right as to how our forces should move. But 
please look over the dispatches you may have received from here, 
even since you made that order, and discover if you can, that 
there is any idea in the head of any one here of 'putting our 
army south of the enemy' or of 'following him to the death' in 
any direction. I repeat to you, it will neither be done nor at- 
tempted unless you watch it every day, and hour, and force it. 

"A. Lincoln." 

It was not necessary for Grant to read between the 
lines of this message to understand its full import. At 
once he saw clearly that the President's mind was bur- 
dened because of the confusion and inactivity which 
prevailed in that part of the field; and in two hours 
after the message was received the General was off for 
the North ; but he did not stop at Washington. He did 
not want to meet Halleck nor Stanton, lest they might 
urge a change in his plans. He knew how "to follow 
the enemy to the death/' and being determined not to 
have his purpose interfered with, he proceeded directly 
to Monocacy, near Frederick, Maryland, where he 
found Hunter. When Grant asked him where the 
enemy was, he replied that he did not know. He was 
so confused by contradictory orders from Washington 
moving him right and left that he had lost all trace of 
the enemy. Under Grant's directions the enemy was 
soon found and instructions were given to Hunter how 
to proceed. In a perfectly frank and genuinely patri- 
otic spirit General Hunter suggested that it might be 



280 ORAt^T, TEE MA'S^ OF MYSTERY 

better for some one else to take command, and offered 
to retire. Grant eagerly accepted the generous offer 
and immediately telegraphed General Sheridan, who 
came bj special train. Only the three generals and 
their staffs were at the station at Monocacy when the 
transfer was made and Sheridan was given command 
of the newly organized Middle Military Division, with 
the instructions which had been prepared for Hunter, 
two paragraphs of which are so characteristic of Grant 
that I insert them : 

"In pushing up the Shenandoah Valley, as it is expected you 
will have to go first or last, it is desirable that nothing should 
be left to invite the enemy to return. Take all provisions, forage, 
and stock wanted for the use of your command. Such as cannot 
be consumed, destroy. It is not desirable that the buildings 
should be destroyed — they should rather be protected; but the 
people should be informed that so long as an army can subsist 
among them, recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we 
are determined to stop them at all hazards. 

"Bear in mind, the object is to drive the enemy south; and 
to do this you want to keep him always in sight. Be guided in 
your course by the course he takes."* 



* It was at this period that much discontent prevailed in the 
North because of the draft for more troops. The opinion was wide- 
spread that Grant could reduce Richmond without the addition of a 
single man. His belief was expressed in a letter to his friend Wash- 
burne, that if the noncombatants in the North were as buoyant and 
full of hope as the men who were doing the fighting, and that if the 
draft was quietly enforced, the enemy would become despondent and 
malie but little resistance. Fresh troops were needed, and the General 
urged the draft for the reason that it would be unjust to the men 
who had gone through so many battles to subject them to another 
series of engagements, when it was within his power so soon and so 
largely to reinforce them and thus distribute the loss, if further 
losses were necessary, among a larger number ; or by means of a larger 
army, to achieve the same end with a far less sacrifice of life. 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 281 

Philip H. Sheridan, only 33 years old, a graduate 
of West Point, a born leader of men, combining untir- 
ing energy, dauntless courage, ardent enthusiasm and 
cool judg-ment, was an ideal man for the position. 
Grant asked him if he could be ready by Tuesday morn- 
ing (August 9th). "Yes, and before; on Monday 
morning before daylight," Sheridan responded. Grant 
was delighted and laconically said, "Go in." In his 
report he says: "He was off promptly on time; and I 
may here add, that I have never since deemed it neces- 
sary to visit General Sheridan before giving him 
orders." 

Sheridan's subordinates were men who outranked 
and in some cases had commanded him. They took up 
their work without a murmur, while a brilliant group 
of younger men. Crook, Merritt, Custer and Charles 
Russell Lowell, eagerly followed the lead of their young 
commander. 

With a force of 26,000 men Sheridan now began a 
campaign as terrible as it was brilliant, for it became 
necessary in order to prevent supplies being sent to the 
Confederate army to turn the garden of Virginia into a 
desert. As the Union forces swept up the valley they 
gathered in crops and cattle, whatever they could use or 
Avhat might be of use to the enemy. What they could 
not take away was destroyed. In a series of hard- 
fought battles during September, Sheridan beat the 
enemy back to the southward until his communication 
with Washington was cut off and the President became 



282 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

anxious about him. He was afraid that Early would 
get in behind him and that reinforcements would be 
sent out from Richmond to overwhelm him, but Grant 
assured the President that he would keep Lee busy. 
Accordingly on the 28th of September, he ordered an 
advance on Richmond; but after desperate fighting in 
which heavy losses were sustained the works of the 
enemy were found to be too strong to be carried by 
assault, and the two opposing armies maintained their 
relative position to the close of the siege. 

The Confederate commander made a serious 
blunder in failing to reckon with Grant as a master of 
strategy. He seemed to suppose that because Peters- 
burg had not been taken. Grant would sit down in hope- 
less inactivity behind his earthworks till something 
should turn up that would compel him to embark his 
army — as it was once embarked before under a different 
commander — to steam down the James and up the 
Potomac. That "turning up of something," Lee took 
upon himself to supply by sending a large portion of 
his army into Shenandoah. But Grant did not steam 
down the James nor up the Potomac. It was his pur- 
pose — boldly but carefully conceived — to make Lee act 
in obedience to the movements of the Federal army, and 
to turn the garden of the Shenandoah into a Valley of 
Humiliation and Desolation to the enemy ; and how well 
Grant's purpose was executed the sequel will show. 

After Sheridan's magnificent victory over Early at 
Winchester, on September 19th, he determined to make 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 283 

a practical application of Grant's letter of instructions 
in so desolating the Shenandoah Valley "that nothing 
should be left to invite the enemy to return ;" or, to use 
Sheridan's own words, he proposed "to make the coun- 
try untenable for permanent occupation by the Confed- 
erates," In Grant's opinion it was the only way to 
terminate the Valley campaign effectually. 

In a few days the Valley from mountain to moun- 
tain was the scene of a conflagration such as had not 
been witnessed during the war. All things upon which 
the enemy could subsist were destroyed. It was not a 
measure of retaliation for the wanton devastation of 
northern towns and property, as had been falsely sup- 
posed, but a stern necessity of war. The Valley was be- 
ing treated as it should have been treated at first, but the 
event was not without a humane feature. All families 
who desired to do so were provided with transportation 
north, and with so much of their household effects and 
such quantity of provisions as their necessities required. 
The laying waste of the Shenandoah was a crushing 
blow to the Confederates, and the battle which soon 
followed effectually closed the Valley, which for a long 
time, had been the race course of the Confederate army. 

Sheridan had been so successful in his Shenandoah 
campaign that it was thought possible to detach a part 
of his command for service elsewhere. Plans were 
made and orders given to this effect, and Sheridan him- 
self went to Washington, October 15th, to confer with 
the authorities, leaving his army at Cedar Creek, 



284 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

twenty miles south of Winchester, under command of 
General Wright. His errand over, Sheridan started to 
return and reached Winchester on the evening of the 
18th. Hearing that all was well at the front he slept 
soundly and after breakfast rode leisurely on to join 
his command. As he advanced he was disturbed by 
the increasing rumble of distant cannon, and soon he 
began to meet groups of fugitives and provision trains 
hastening to the rear. He ordered the brigade at Win- 
chester to arrest all flight and pressed toward the front. 
By rebuke, entreaty, imprecations, and commands he 
turned back the stream of frightened men, rallied and 
reorganized them, and changed them from a disordered 
mob into a resistless army. Possibly never in the 
history of war was there a finer exhibition of the per- 
sonal power of leader to change defeat into victory. 
What had happened was this: From the top of the 
mountain of the preceding day the Confederate officers 
had made a survey of the Union camp, and before day- 
light a sudden and impetuous attack was made, com- 
pletely surprising the Federals, who were thrown into 
confusion. Under the gallant leadership of Kuther- 
ford B. Hayes, Kicketts, Getty, and Lewis A. Grant, 
portions of the army fought with desperate valor and 
held the field until Sheridan arrived, when the reorgan- 
ized and inspirited forces hurled themselves upon the 
enemy and swept them across the river, to be pursued by 
the cavalry until they melted away into the surrounding 
country. The victory was complete. All that had 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE i^HENANDOAH 285 

been lost in the early morning was recovered, many 
gnns and a large amount of camp equipment were cap- 
tured, and the enemy was demoralized.* 

As might be expected, this victory was hailed with 
boundless enthusiasm in the North. Sheridan was the 
hero of the hour and the President hastened to make 
him a major-general in the regular army. But amid 
the general rejoicing there was none who was better 
satisfied than the silent commander who had planned 
the movement and selected its leader. Almost eclipsed 
for the time, and suffering from humiliating failure at 
Petersburg through no fault of his own, he was well con- 
tent to see the cause triumph and to have a fellow sol- 
dier receive his due meed of praise. lie telegraphed 
Secretary Stanton, "I had a salute of one hundred guns 
fired from each of the armies here, in honor of Sheri- 
dan's last victory. Turning what bid fair to be disaster 
into a glorious victory stamps Sheridan, what I have 
always thought hian, one of the ablest of generals." 

When General Grant assumed the command of all 
the Union forces, the understanding with General 
Sherman was that he should march against General 
J. E. Johnston, prevent him from joining Lee, destroy 
his army if possible, and capture Atlanta, the southern 
stronghold of the Confederacy. The contest between 



* The brilliant victory at Cedar Creek has been made the sub- 
ject of a famous poem entitled "Sheridan's Ride," by Thomas Bu- 
chanan Read (1865). It has been rendered with stirring effect by 
many readers, but more especially by America's most distinguished 
elocutionist, James E. Murdock. 



286 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Sherman and Johnston was a battle of giants, well 
matched in courage and skill. With the three armies, 
the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio, com- 
manded by Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, Sher- 
man left Chattanooga May 7th, 1864, and after a series 
of fierce battles succeeded by the 10th of July in shut- 
ting up Johnston's army in the defences of Atlanta. At 
this crisis Johnston was superseded by General J. B. 
Hood, who was more aggressive but lacked the caution 
and skill of his predecessor. On the 20th, 22nd, and 2Sth 
of July, Hood made three desperate assaults on the 
Union Army, in one of which (the 22nd) the gallant 
and beloved General McPherson was killed, and Hood 
was repulsed with heavy losses. By an incautious move 
his army became divided and Sherman marched into 
Atlanta, September 2nd. Hood now moved northward 
into Tennessee, fought his way as far as l^Tashville, and 
with his army of 50,000 men invested the city, which 
was defended by the army of the Cumberland under 
General Thomas. Grant was greatly concerned about 
the situation, and, fearful that the cautious Thomas 
would delay too long, started west to take command in 
person ; but when he reached Washington he received a 
dispatch from Thomas, December 15th, announcing his 
attack upon the enemy. In a battle that lasted two days 
Hood's army was practically annihilated and the judg- 
ment and generalship of Thomas were completely 
vindicated. 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 287 

A month before the battle at Nashville, Sherman 
began his famous march to the sea. There has been some 
misunderstanding, as well as careless writing as to who 
projected the movement — Grant or Sherman. In his 
Autobiography, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) 
makes Grant say a short time before his death: 
"Neither of us originated the idea of Sherman's march 
to the sea. The enemy did it." But this quotation, if 
correctly given by Mr. Clemens, needs explanation. 
Only the official records can clearly and satisfactorily 
settle the authorship of the idea of "Marching through 
Georgia." 

In the latter part of October, 1864, General Hood 
was contemplating his invasion of Tennessee and 
Kentucky. At that time Sherman was at Kome, 
Georgia, making his own plans for a campaign through 
Georgia. On the 1st of November Grant, then at City 
Point, asked Sherman by telegraph if he did not think 
it advisable "now that Hood has gone so far north, to 
entirely ruin him before you start on your proposed 
campaign" ? On the next day Sherman answered that 
if he could hope to overhaul Hood, he would turn upon 
him with his whole force, but in that event he thought 
Hood would probably retreat southwest to try to decoy 
him (Sherman) away from Georgia, which was his 
chief objective point. Sherman added that General 
Thomas would have force enough to prevent Hood from 
reaching any country in which the Union Forces had 
an interest. 



288 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYHTERY 

Later iu the day of jS'ovember 2nd, Sherman sent 
another dispatch to Grant in which he stated : ''If I 
tnrn back (to follow Hood) the whole effect of my 
campaign will be lost." Grant, having as much con- 
fidence in Sherman as he had in himself, immediately 
sent back the message : "I do not see that you can with- 
draw from where you are to follow Hood. ... I 
say, then, go on as you propose." Sherman says in his 
Memoirs that this was the first time that Grant assented 
to the march to the sea. 

There was not the least trace of prejudice or selfish- 
ness in Grant's character. He never arrogated to him- 
self the credit for making a single movement which 
properly belonged to another. Therefore, he says in 
the Memoirs: "The question of who devised the plan 
of march from Atlanta to Savannah is easily answered ; 
it was clearly Sherman, and to him also belongs the 
credit of its brilliant execution." And Lincoln, when 
hearing that Sherman had reached the sea, wrote him on 
the 26th of December, 1864: "When you were about 
to leave Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious 
if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better 
judge ... I did not interfere. Now, the under- 
taking being a success, the honor is all yours." 

Sherman began his famous march to the sea on 
November 14th, with an army of 60,000 men, reaching 
Savannah, a distance of 250 miles, on December 22nd. 
It is worth while to add in this connection, that on the 
1st of February he began his march northward and 



IN THE VALLEY OF TEE SHENANDOAH 289 

entered Columbia, S. C, on the I7tli. General Hardee, 
in command at Charleston, after destroying much 
property, evacuated the desolated city, which was soon 
after entered by the Federal troops, and on the 18th 
''Old Glory" was again waving over Fort Sumter. 
Sherman pushed on northward, fighting his way and 
reached Goldsboro, X. C, March 15th, having marched 
425 miles in 50 days over corduroy roads, across rivers, 
through swamps, capturing important cities and depots 
of supplies, his army "in superb order and the trains 
almost as fresh as when they started from Atlanta." 

While his lieutenants were thus successful in carry- 
ing out their part of the plan. Grant was strengthening 
his position before Petersburg, and with the approach 
of spring the time had come for the master-strategist 
to draw in his lines and concentrate his forces for a 
final campaign which should crush the rebellion by com- 
pelling the evacuation of Richmond and the surrender 
of Lee's army. 

This chapter, which deals with the stirring military 
events during the autumn of 1864, cannot be closed 
properly without a reference to Grant and the election 
of that year. He was always the man of mystery, from 
the beginning to the end of the war ; and he was no less 
a mystery, or more misunderstood by the politican — and 
even by Lincoln — than in the presidential battle of 
1864. 

The President was greatly concerned about the situ- 
ation in that year, because in the October election 



290 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Pennsylvania had been carried by the Democrats ; and 
that state was an important battle ground for the elec- 
tion which was to follow in November. Colonel 
Alexander K. McClure, who was a leader in the Re- 
publican party in that state, was called to Washington, 
to advise with the President. In his Lincoln and Men 
of War-Times, he gives an account of the interview. 
He says he found Lincoln's face shadowed with sorrow 
over the prospect, and in the conversation he asked the 
Colonel : "Well, what is to be done ?" The answer was 
that "Grant was idle in front of Petersburg," and if 
5,000 Pennsylvania soldiers could be furloughed home 
for two weeks from each army the election could be 
carried without doubt. When Colonel McClure made 
this suggestion the President was silent and distressed, 
and after hesitating for some time he is quoted by the 
Colonel as making this remarkable reply: "Well 
McClure, I have no reason to believe that Grant prefers 
my election to that of McClellan," 

If Colonel McClure quoted the President aright, the 
latter's condition of mind in respect to the General's 
political attitude is incomprehensible ; for there was not 
the least ground on which Lincoln could base the belief 
that Grant did not heartily wish the re-election of the 
Administration. Between Lincoln and Grant had 
passed letters more expressive of faith and trust in each 
other than had ever before been written by the Chief 
Magistrate of the Nation and the Commander-in-chief 
of the army. Each believed in the other with all his 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH 291 

soul, and mind, and strength ; and that in the campaign 
of 1864 Lincoln doubted Grant's absolute loyalty to him 
seems as incredible as would be the statement that Grant 
depreciated the work he himself had already done in the 
field, and distrusted the ability of himself and his 
armies to conquer Lee and save the Union. 

Grant was as silent as he was mysterious. When 
doing his hardest thinking and planning his most 
elaborate campaign, he said the least about it for public 
ear. It will be remembered that when he was prepar- 
ing his first campaign against Lee, he said so little about 
it to Lincoln that the latter, in a letter to Grant on the 
30th of April, used this language : "The particulars of 
your plans I neither know nor seek to know." And this 
same reticence was characteristic of Grant in the politi- 
cal campaign, so far as the general public, or even the 
Administration, was concerned. 

There was not the slightest reason for Colonel 
McClure to say that after that interview with Lincoln, 
"the name of Grant left a bad taste in my mouth for 
many years." If the Colonel knew anything of Grant 
and of the warm friendship existing between him and 
Lincoln, he certainly should have known that among 
the things impossible, was the alleged indifference of 
the Commander-in-chief as to the fate of the President 
in the election. As early as August 16th, 1864, Grant 
wrote Representative Washburne: "I have no doubt 
but the enemy are exceedingly anxious to hold out until 
after the presidential election. They have many hopes 



292 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

from its effects. They hope for a counter-revolution." 
And Horace Porter, in his Campaigning with Grant, 
says the latter "never failed to let it be known (among 
the troops) that he ardently desired the triumph of the 
party which was in favor of vigorously prosecuting the 
war." 

Moreover, when Grant had been consulted — not by 
the Administration — as to the legality and advisability 
of soldiers voting in the field when their respective 
states had made provision for their so doing, he took a 
comprehensive and statesmanlike view of the question, 
and in a communication to the Secretary of War, dated 
at City Point on the 27th of September, 1864, he said, 
among many important things: "They (the volunteer 
soldiers) are American citizens, and because they have 
left their home temporarily to sustain the cause of the 
Union, they should not be deprived of the right to use 
the ballot," while carrying the bayonet; and he sug- 
gested in a very clear manner, how a soldier's right to 
vote according to his own convictions should be safe- 
guarded. It was generally known at the time that a 
large majority of the soldiers in the field would vote as 
they fought, for a prosecution of the war, and both Lin- 
coln and McClure must have known of the existence of 
Grant's communication to Stanton — a document which 
removed any doubt as to the General's fidelity to the 
President. Grant did not vote on election day for the 
reason that Illinois had failed to enact a law which al- 
lowed her soldiers to vote in the field. But on the 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE 8HENAND0AH 293 

morning after the election he telegraphed the Adminis- 
tration : "The victory is worth more to the country 
than a battle won." Grant afterwards told Colonel 
McClure, in explaining his political attitude in 1864: 
"It would have been obviously unbecoming on my part 
to give public expression against a general whom I had 
succeeded as Commander-in-chief of the army."* 

When Colonel McClure says in his interview with 
Lincoln, which has been widely published, that Grant 
was "idle in front of Petersburg," he little understood 
what the General was doing to seal the fate of both 
Petersburg and Richmond. At the very time the 
Colonel says the General was idle, William Swinton, 
the historian, then in the field, and who was by no 
means partial to Grant, said that "he was conducting the 
most marvellous siege of Richmond — then more wonder- 
ful, and up to that time as long, as the siege of 
Sebastopol ; and by months of arduous labor Grant has 
step by step pushed his lines" closer to the enemy. 

If any one wants to obtain a forcible idea of the re- 
sponsibility placed upon Grant in maintaining the 
sieges of Petersburg and Richmond, and at the same 
time keeping in touch with the operations in other 
fields, he must read the Rebellion Records for only 
four months — August, September, October, and Novem- 

* Colonel McClure says "Sheridan furloughed 10,000 Pennsyl- 
vania soldiers for a week, and Lincoln carried the state on the home 
vote of 5,712 majority, to which was added the army vote of 14,363." 
The total army vote of Pennsylvania was 20,075, of which McClellan 
received 5,712. McClellan was the worst defeated candidate ever 
nominated by any one of the great political parties of the country. 



294 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

ber, 186-1. In these volumes, which omit correspon- 
dence, are 2,000 pages of telegraphic orders relating to 
matters in which Grant was mostly concerned, and a 
large portion of them required his immediate attention. 
It was not an nnnsnal thing for him to send and re- 
ceive from fifteen to twenty-five dispatches a day at 
City Point, nearly all of which pertained to the army in 
the East, not including the Shenandoah, 

"Grant idle in front of Petersburg," has a queer 
sound to all who knew the General and were acquainted 
with the history of the war on the Potomac at that 
period. The day never dawned from Belmont to Ap- 
pomattox (except during the short time he was re- 
lieved by Halleck, in the spring of 1862) when there 
was not evolving in his mind some practical plan to 
defeat his antagonist. Grant was the quiet man of 
plain manners; and the qualities which brought great 
plans did not, in his mind, comport with ostentation and 
superficial accomplishments. 




XXXIII. 
HOW GRANT REACHED APPOMATTOX. 

RANT'S headquarters remained at City 
Point (on the James river) during the win- 
ter of 1864-65 because of its advantageous 
position. He could communicate more 
expeditiously from that place with the armies of the 
James and of the Potomac ; and it also afforded an easy 
passage to and from Washington should it be necessary 
for the General and the authorities at the Capital to 
hold personal interview. Several times Lincoln visited 
Grant at City Point, and many other persons of note 
from the North found it convenient to call on the man 
who was carrying the tremendous responsibility of end- 
ing the war. Heroic as was his determined purpose, 
and marvellous as were his tenacity of will and fearless- 
ness in battle, his visitors at headquarters foimd him 
wearing the ornaments of courtesy, gentleness of man- 
ner, and quietness of spirit. His plain way of living 
astonished them. He was easily approached by all 



296 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

civilian callers, and they found him an entertaining 
conversationalist, but as to his army plans, he was the 
silent man. Sometimes ho invited a few of his friends 
whom he knew in Galena, whose kindness to him in the 
days of his adversity he always remembered with 
gratitude. To all snch acquaintances he was strongly 
attached. Among those guests Avas the Rev. John 
H. Vincent, his former pastor, who happened to reach 
City Point when Lincoln was there; and introducing 
the President to him, the General said with a heart full 
of earnestness: "Mr. President, this is Mr. Vincent, 
whom I heard preach every Sunday while I lived in 
Galena." And when at City Point, and while lunching 
with General and Mrs. Grant, Mr. Vincent says, that 
he reminded her of her expressed hope when he left 
Galena in 1861 (quoted in Chapter fourteen) concern- 
ing the promotion of her husband. With a pleasant 
smile and much enthusiasm she replied : "I knew what 
was in him if only he had a chance with the other fel- 
lows." As the Bishop says, the General's success "was 
never a surprise to the woman who knew him best" ; 
and it may be said of the General himself, that neither 
by word nor manner did he ever seem surprised at any 
of his successful campaigns. 

Even in the midwinter, when the armies were sup- 
posed not to be particularly active, mentally Grant was 
at rest only during a few sleeping hours at night. His 
pen seemed never to lag. He kept his mind on all the 
departments of the enormous army under his command. 



HOW GRANT REACHED APPOMATTOX 297 

If any one is so dull as to see nothing great in Grant 
beyond his determined purpose, courage, and uncon- 
querable will in battle, let him explain, if he can, why 
the General's comprehensive mind, clear-sightedness, 
and success of judgment so quietly manifested, made 
him the central figure in almost every great achievement 
of the army. Many striking instances to prove that he 
was, have been given already ; but one which relates to 
the operation of the army of the James in the winter of 
1864-65 when, to many wrong-headed persons, he seemed 
to be ''idle in front of Petersburg," should be included 
in this chapter. 

Fort Fisher, located at the mouth of Cape Fear 
Kiver, below Wilmington, North Carolina, was occu- 
pied by the Confederates. It was of great importance 
to them, and being an inlet to blockade runners which 
furnished the enemy supplies, it was strongly fortified. 
In December, 1864, Grant determined to send an ex- 
pedition against the fort and capture it. Fort Fisher 
being in Butler's department, he was entitled to the 
right of fitting out the land force which was to be sup- 
ported by a naval squadron commanded by Admiral 
Porter. Butler entertained the notion that if a steamer 
loaded with powder could be run close to the shore 
under the fort and exploded, it would create such a 
havoc, that, with the co-operation of the army person- 
ally commanded by himself, Fisher was sure to fall. 
The navy department believed that the experiment sug- 
gested by Butler would succeed. Grant did not believe 



298 GttAiHf, fBE MAN OF MYST^Rt 

in it for obvious reasons, but he permitted it to be tried. 
The boat load of powder was exploded on the night of 
the 24th of December, but Grant says it produced "no 
more effect on the fort, or anything else on land, than 
the bursting of a boiler anywhere on the Atlantic Ocean 
would have done." Butler did not obey the instruc- 
tions given to him by Grant, and therefore the ex- 
pedition was a "gross and culpable failure" ; the event 
leading to Butler's retirement. 

Grant now resolutely purposed to take Fort Fisher, 
and to enforce his own plan in taking it. He selected 
General Terry to command the land forces, and con- 
fided to Porter his plan of action, and this was made 
known only to a few of the trusted officers in the navy 
department at Washington. Thus, the quiet man 
worked out the details of the movement in a singularly 
quiet way. This is no place for particulars. Briefly 
stated, the army, under Terry, and the naval squadron, 
under Porter, worked in perfect harmony ; and on Sun- 
day, January 25th, 1865, Fort Fisher was captured 
with 169 cannon and over 2,000 prisoners. 

It is well to pause a moment before we follow the 
fortunes of the great commander in his final campaign 
and see how the first soldier of his age appeared to his 
contemporaries, and how he is portrayed by careful and 
judicious historians. First, as to his personal appear- 
ance. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the 
Confederacy, was one of the three Confederate com- 
missioners who entered our lines about Petersburg un- 



HOW ORANT REACHED APPOMATTOX 299 

der army regulations on the last of January, 1865, to 
confer with Grant at City Point, on the basis for peace 
negotiations. But Grant having no authority to meet 
the commissioners for any such purpose, Washington 
was informed of their presence, and, as a matter of 
course, the conference held between them and Lincoln 
and Seward did not give hojie to the South. In his 
volume. War Between the States, Mr. Stephens records 
his surprise at the extreme simplicity of the General-in 
chief and the absence of everything that usually per- 
tains to rank and authority. He says : 

"He was plainly attired, sitting in a log cabin busily writing 
on a small table by a kerosene lamp. It was night when we ar- 
rived; there was nothing in his appearance or surroundings that 
indicated his official rank. There were neither guards nor aides 
about him. . . . The more I became acquainted with him the 
more I became thoroughly impressed with the very extraordinary 
combination of rare elements of character which he exhibited. 

Dr. Hosmer, in his Outcome of the Civil War, after 
describing the dignified and precise Lee, says : 

"Grant, on the other hand, always homely and unimpressive, 
discredited by his ante-bellum record, informal to the point of 
negligence about all details of dress and manner, yet withal 
simple, intrepid, honest, with an eye single to the great purpose 
which he had adopted — here is a character that can be embraced; 
he has roughness upon which the human heart can take hold — 
worth most substantial, but with a foil of limitation that makes 
him a man among men." 

And, concerning Grant's work up to the close of 
1864, Dr. Hosmer says: 

"In Grant's record, the masterpiece is undoubtedly the cap- 
ture of Vicksburg. And yet, where shall we parallel the relent- 
less force of will with which, in 1864, he, a man of gentle and 



300 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

humane nature, smote with his flesh and blood hammer, believing 
it to be the only way to success, and even hardened his heart 
toward Andersonville, determined to secure by whatever sacrifice 
the salvation of his country?" 

Another paragraph from Dr. Hosmer is well worth 
quoting because it relates to the tremendous strain to 
which Grant had been subjected for eighteen months : 

"From the battle of Chattanooga, in October, 1863, to the 
spring of 1865, General Grant underwent severe trials. His 
labors were incessant, his responsibilities enormous, his capacity 
exercised to its fullest. Nevertheless, he was disappointed where 
he tried hardest; for after a year's steady campaigning, Rich- 
mond and the Army of Northern Virginia were still defiant. 
Though Meade continued to command the Army of the Potomac, 
Grant was always at his side, the real leader; and it was he 
whom the people judged for whatever that army did or failed to 
do. Meantime, Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas reached high dis- 
tinction. Their success, no doubt, was in part due to Grant, who 
put those generals in place, had a hand in all their planning, if 
he was not absolutely the director of their movements; and kept 
Lee from reinforcing their opponents; but to the popular eye 
this was not quite apparent. Grant's tenacity, indeed, through 
protracted disaster, excited wonder. Really, his heroic quality 
was never more manifest than in that long year's endurance of 
hope deferred; but this is plainer in the retrospect than it was 
at the moment." 

Now to return to the armies before Petersburg. 

In February, Sheridan had been ordered as soon as 
he could move to make a raid to the west of Richmond 
to destroy canals and railroads in every direction. By 
the end of March, only two of the main lines of com- 
munication centering in Richmond and Petersburg 
were under Confederate control. Grant's plan Avas to 
extend his lines to the south and west so as to secure 



HOW ORA^T REACHED APPOMATTOX 301 

control of these, and when Sheridan should join him 
he proposed to make a final attempt to cut all Lee's 
communication with the outside world and thus seal the 
fate of the army of Xorthern Virginia. His chief fear 
was that Lee would escape and join Johnston's army in 
North Carolina. 

On the night of March 25th, Lee sent General J. B. 
Gordon to make an attack upon Fort Steadman, near 
the center of the Federal line south of Petersburg. The 
attack was at first successful and the enemy gained pos- 
session of the works, but as day dawned, the Federals 
rallied, recaptured the fort, and took the entire attack- 
ing party of 4,000 prisoners. 

Sheridan had now arrived, Sherman came up from 
Goldsboro, President Lincoln joined them at City Point 
March 27th, and these four great chiefs, full of hope 
and with complete confidence in one another, talked 
over their plans for the coming campaign. 

Nicolay and Hay, in their masterly work on the 
Life of Abraham Lincoln, after speaking of the confer- 
ence between the President and the generals at City 
Point, say: 

"Sherman went back to Goldsboro and Grant began pushing 
his army to the left with even more than his usual iron energy. 
It was a great army; it was the result of all the power and wis- 
dom of the Government, all the devotion of the people, all the 
intelligence and teachableness of the soldiers themselves, and all 
the ability and character which the experience of mighty war 
had developed in the officers. Few nations have produced better 
corps commanders than Sheridan, Warren, Humphreys, Ord, 
Wright, and Parke, taking their names as they come in the vast 



302 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

sweep of the Union lines from Dinwiddie Court House to the 
James in the last days of March. North of the James was Weit- 
zel, vigilant and capable. Between Grant and the Army of the 
Potomac was Meade, the incarnation of industry, zeal, and tal- 
ent; and in command of all was Grant, then in his best days, the 
most extraordinary military temperament this country has ever 
seen. When unfriendly criticism has exhausted itself, the fact 
remains, not to be explained away by any reasoning, subtle or 
gross, that in this tremendous war he accomplished more with the 
means given him than any other two on either side. The means 
given him were enormous, the support of the Government was 
intelligent and untiring; but others had received the same means 
and the same support — and he alone captured three armies. The 
popular instinct which hails him as our greatest general is cor- 
rect; and the dilettante critics who write ingenious arguments to 
prove that one or another of his subordinates or his adversaries 
was his superior will please for a time their diminishing coteries, 
and then pass into silence without damaging his robust fame." 

Hardly any incident more clearly illustrates Grant's 
mysterious character than his plan of organizing the 
spring campaign of 1865. Sheridan, the intrepid 
fighter of the Shenandoah, and his army, had been 
transferred by Grant from the Valley to the Army of 
the Potomac. About the time the conference was held 
at City Point at which Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman 
were present, there was much restlessness in the North 
because of the seemingly slow movment of the Army of 
the Potomac. It was a rainy season, and for some days 
neither the artillery nor the cavalry could make success- 
ful movements. But during this apparent delay Grant 
was at his best. He was preparing plans for a supreme 
movement against the enemy. To some of his instruc- 



HOW GRANT REACHED APPOMATTOX 303 

tions to the army — carefully drawn by himself — 
Rawlins, his chief-of-staff, who had been at the 
General's side in every great campaign, took exceptions 
expressed in both vigorous speech and action. But the 
charm of Grant's temper did not desert him, and after 
Rawlins had given vent to his feelings concerning a 
portion of the instructions to the army, the General, in 
a state of the utmost tranquility, and with a face more 
impassive than usual, said : "Well, Rawlins, I think you 
had better take command." This was like spiking 
the enemy's guns. 

When Sheridan reached City Point and read the 
letter of instructions, he also became vehement in his 
opposition to that portion which seemed to foreshadow 
his joining Sherman for the purpose of crushing 
Johnston's army. But Grant loved Rawlins and 
Sheridan and could not wrangle with them. He was 
never provoked to excitement, and whatever may have 
been his feelings on an occasion of this kind, he did not 
show the slightest ill temper. He was planning a move- 
ment of the army which contemplated a great victory 
for Sheridan, and not many days hence would compel 
the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the 
surrender of Lee. 

Grant had a twofold purpose in giving such in- 
structions to Sheridan which he could not understand 
until it was clearly and quietly explained to him by the 
Commander-in-chief. Grant had determined to bring 



304 GRANT, THE MA?i OF MYSTERY 

the war to an end then and there, and making this pur- 
pose known to Sheridan, the face of the Shenandoah 
hero brightened up, and Grant says, "slapping his 
hand on his leg he exclaimed, 'I am glad to hear it, 
and we can do it'." 




XXXIV. 

GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS. 

HE onward movement of Grant's army in 
accordance with his instructions of the 
24:th of March, supplemented by those of 
the 28th, began on the 29th. It was the 
beginning of the end. Sheridan was to attack the Con- 
federate right. Lee hurried reinforcements to the 
threatened point and a hot struggle took place at Five 
Forks on April 1st, in which Sheridan was completely 
successful, putting the enemy to flight and capturing 
6,000 prisoners. As soon as Grant heard that Sheri- 
dan was in possession of Five Forks he ordered a gen- 
eral attack upon the defences of Petersburg. There 
was no hesitation and no blunder this time. Each 
division of the army did its work effectively. One po- 
sition after another was taken, so that before noon, 
April 2nd, Grant rode his horse over the parapet of 
the outer fortifications, and at 4 :40 p. m. sent word to 



306 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

City Point where the President was waiting: "We are 
now up and have a continuous line of troops, and in a 
few hours will be entrenched from the Appomattox be- 
low Petersburg to the river above. . . . The whole 
captures since the army started out gunning will 
amount to not less than 12,000 men, and probably 50 
pieces of artillery. ... I think the President 
might come out and pay us a visit to-morrow." 

Grant ordered ' a bombardment of Petersburg to 
begin at 5 o'clock next morning, to be followed by an 
assault at 6, but before the order could be carried out, 
the Confederate army had evacuated the city. At 11 
o'clock, April 2nd, Lee had telegraphed to Richmond: 
''I see no prospect of doing more than hold our posi- 
tion until night. I am not certain that I can do that." 
It was Sunday, and Jefferson Davis was in St. Paul's 
Episcopal Church, of which he was a member, when the 
dispatch was taken to him. He immediately left the 
church and gave orders for the evacuation of Richmond. 
The city was in panic, and public buildings, ware- 
houses, stores, private residences, were blown up or 
set on fire. The convicts from the state prison escaped 
and added new terror to the pandemonium that reigned 
until a Federal force under Weitzel appeared at 7 
o'clock in the morning, April 3rd, and restored order. 
Never was the appearance of an enemy more welcome 
than were the hated "Yanks" to the terror stricken 
citizens of Richmond. 

The plans and combinations of Grant contemplated 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 307 

precisely the event that had occurred, the defeat of 
Lee, and his retreat in haste from Petersburg and Kich- 
mond. It was not meant that in any contingency he 
should be permitted to escape. The fatal hour had come 
to the Commander of the Confederate army. Grant's 
attack along his whole line the day after Five Forks Avas 
so complete that Lee said: "I had to stretch my lines 
until they broke." 

When General Grant found that Lee had evacuated 
Petersburg, he, with General Meade, entered the town 
in time to see the flying Confederates moving through 
some of the streets and along the river bottom. He says 
that he did not have the artillery brought up because 
he expected to push on immediately in pursuit, and 
adds: "I had not the heart to turn the artillery upon 
such a mass of defeated and fleeing men, and I hope to 
capture them soon." 

While everything had gone according to the plans 
that Grant had made when he first ordered Sheridan to 
advance, he had not told Mr. Lincoln for fear that the 
plan might miscarry and another disappointment be 
added to the many the long-suffering President had 
known for the past three years, but after the capture of 
Petersburg he telegraphed Mr. Lincoln to ride out and 
see him there. All the troops had started in pursuit of 
the enemy and not a person or an animal could be seen 
on the streets. Grant and his staff awaited the arrival 
of the President on the piazza of a deserted house. The 
first thing Mr. Lincoln said after congratulations and 



308 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

thanks was : "Do you know, General, that I have had a 
sort of sneaking idea for some days that you intended 
to do something like this?" The President soon after 
returned to City Point, and Grant rode off to join the 
pursuing army. 

The army of Northern Virginia was fleeing for its 
life. Lee's plan was to hurry south and unite with 
Johnston and strike Sherman, but his rations had failed, 
and he found that Grant had cut the railway south of 
him. This was next to the last crushing blow to Lee. 
Grant and his generals, determined to end the war 
there, pushed on with the greatest vigor and fell upon 
the rear and flanks of the enemy, who from time to 
time turned to strike his pursuers. At Sailor's Creek a 
sharp conflict took place on the 6th, resulting in the 
defeat of the Confederates with a loss of 1,700 prison- 
ers and a large amount of equipment. Sheridan, see- 
ing the possibilities of ultimate success, ended his report 
by saying: "If the thing is pressed, I think Lee will 
surrender." Grant sent the dispatch to Lincoln, who 
instantly replied: "Let the thing be pressed." The 
pursuit continued during the 7th when it became ap- 
parent that the Confederate army w^as going to pieces. 
Grant became convinced that Lee w^ould be willing to 
consider a proposal to surrender. Sitting at his head- 
quarters on the piazza of a village tavern at Farmville, 
fifteen miles a little southeast of Appomattox Court 
House, while his soldiers marched by with bands play- 
ing and with every possible demonstration of joy, the 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 309 

mysterious, silent man was thinking, not how he could 
win further honors to himself, but how he could most 
quickly end this struggle and how he could bring about 
that end with least humiliation to his fallen foe. 

The Confederate forces had been reduced to such 
a "ragged, weary, starved remnant," that on Friday, 
April 7th, Lee's corps commanders suggested to him 
that the time had come for negotiations for peace. And 
on the evening of the same day while at Farmville, 
Grant sent to Lee the following note under a flag of 
truce : 

"The results of the last week must convince you of the hope- 
lessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern 
Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my 
duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further eflfu- 
sion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of 
the Confederate States army known as the Army of Northern 
Virginia." 

This was answered within one hour, and although 
his forces were crushed to pieces and his chance of suc- 
cess was gone forever, Lee said that he did not enter- 
tain the opinion expressed by Grant regarding the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the 
Army of Northern Virginia, but was willing to ask for 
terms of surrender. Grant, of course, was not satisfied 
with the tone of Lee's reply, and on the following morn- 
ing, while yet at Farmville, he sent him a second note, 
in which he expressly stated that there was but one 
basis upon which peace could be restored — a complete 
surrender of the Confederate forces; and Grant also 



310 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

added that he would meet Lee at any point agreeable 
to him, for the purpose of arranging terms of surren- 
der. This note was received by Lee late in the after- 
noon on Saturday, the 8th, and in his answer thereto, 
written after sundown, he insisted that while he could 
not meet Grant with a view to surrender the Army of 
Northern Virginia, he would meet him at 10 o'clock 
Sunday morning on the old stage road to Richmond 
between the picket lines of the two armies to consider 
the question of peace so far as it affected the Confed- 
erate States forces under his command. 

General Alexander, in his Memoirs of a Confeder- 
ate, says Lee had but recently been appointed com- 
mander-in-chief of all the Confederate armies, and that 
he delayed the surrender of his own army in order that 
the negotiation might include that of all the Confeder- 
ates under his command. 

But before proceeding further regarding the fa- 
mous correspondence between the two commanders, it 
will be interesting to note the attitude of Lee and his 
generals towards the proposition to surrender. Imme- 
diately prior to a conference of Lee's corps command- 
ers at which they expressed the opinion that the time 
had come when their chief should have a personal in- 
terview with Grant, General Pendleton, Lee's chief of 
artillery, had a consultation with the General on the 
subject of surrender. A part of what the Confederate 
chief said to Pendleton is told in Dr. J. William Jones' 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 311 

Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee. Lee, replying 
to one of Pendleton's questions said: 

"We have yet too many bold men to think of laying down our 
arms. The enemy do not fight with spirit, while our boys still 
do. Besides, if I were to say a word to the Federal commander 
he would regard it as such a confession of weakness as to make it 
the occasion of demanding unconditional surrender — a proposal 
to which I will never listen. I have resolved to die first; and if 
it comes to that we should force through or all fall in our places." 

While it may seem that Lee's courage had not failed 
him, he was not insensible of the fact that his "game 
was desperate beyond redemption." Two words: "un- 
conditional surrender," weighed heavily upon his mind. 
He hardly thought it possible that the "glorious old 
Army of Northern Virginia," should suffer the fate of 
the Confederate forces at Donelson and Vicksburg. He 
seemed perplexed beyond measure as to what course to 
pursue ; and yet, when General E. P. Alexander said to 
him: "We have only the choice of two courses, either 
to surrender, or take to the woods and bushes," the lat- 
ter choice signifying bushwhacking, Lee, as a Christian 
man, said he could not agree to disperse the army in 
this way ; General Alexander quotes him as saying : "As 
for myself, you young fellows might go to bushwhack- 
ing, but the only dignified course for me would be to go 
to Grant and surrender myself and take the consequen- 
ces of my acts." 

Lee's corps commanders had agreed on the 8th that 
they would try to cut their way through to Appomattox 
Station early on Sunday morning the 9th, and if unsuc- 



312 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

cessful tliej should call a halt, notify Lee, who would 
then raise a flag of truce with a view to surrendering. 
The attempt was made to break through the Federal 
lines, but Grant's forces stood like a wall of adamant 
before the jaded Confederate lines, and a sullen gloom 
settled upon the prospects of the enemy. What hap- 
pened early on Sunday morning I give in the language 
of Colonel Charles S. Venable of Lee's staff: 

"At 3 o'clock on the morning of that fatal day Lee 
rode forward, still hoping that we might break through 
the countless hordes of the enemy. . . . Halting 
a short distance in the rear of our vanguard, he sent 
me to Gordon to ask him if he could break through the 
enemy. Gordon's reply to the message was this: 'Tell 
General Lee I have fought my corps to a frazzle, and I 
fear I can do nothing unless I am heavily supported by 
Longstreet's corps.' When Lee heard this message he 
said : 'There is nothing left me but to go and see Grant, 
and I would rather die a thousand deaths.' .... 
Said one : 'O General, what will history say of the sur- 
render of the army in the field?' He replied: 'Yes, I 
know they will say hard things of us ; . . . but 
that is not the question. Colonel ; the question is : is it 
right to surrender this army ? If it is right, then I will 
take all the responsibility.' " 

The end had come. Any further struggle on the 
part of Lee to escape surrender would be not only hope- 
less but almost criminal. Longstreet, who had known 



GRANT AXD LEE SHAKE HANDS 313 

Grant in the old army, tried to remove from Lee's mind, 
as miicli as possible the dread of meeting Grant, by as- 
snring him that the former would not exact unreason- 
able terms. Terrible as was Grant in battle, in dealing 
with a fallen foe his mercy was as tender as that taught 
in the gospel of the Son of Man. Little did Lee seem 
to think that in meeting his antagonist face to face, the 
victor's innate kindness, sympathy, and love of peace 
would give the vanquished the most magnanimous 
terms ever offered in the history of the world. 

Lee's note of the 8th to Grant, saying that he would 
meet him on the stage road between the two picket lines, 
was received by Grant about midnight on Saturday, at 
Meade's headquarters at Curdsville, eight miles north of 
Farmsville and fifteen miles east of Appomattox Court 
House. 

On Saturday afternoon Grant was attacked by a vio- 
lent sick headache. His suffering was greater than at 
any time since he was thrown from his horse near New 
Orleans, shortly after the siege of Vicksburg. The last 
week of the campaign against Lee had been especially 
severe. He was making a supreme effort to capture the 
Confederate army. This occasioned intense mental and 
physical strain and the loss of sleep. During the night 
of Saturday, hot baths, mustard plasters, and other 
remedies were employed to allay the pain and produce 
sleep, but no good results came from them. This v/as 



314 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

the General's condition when Lee's note reached him at 
midnight. After reading it, General Horace Porter 
makes Grant say: "It looks as if Lee still means to 
fight ; I will reply in the morning." 

In answering Lee's note Grant reminded him that 
he had no authority to treat for peace on any political 
basis, that the proposed meeting at 10 o'clock would 
lead to no good, and that peace could only be restored 
by the South laying down their arms. 

But this note was not received by Lee at 8 :30 a. m., 
and fully expecting that Grant would accede to the pro- 
posal to meet between the two picket lines at 10 o'clock, 
the Confederate Commander started out to meet him. 
General Alexander says Lee wore a full suit of new 
uniform, with sword and sash, and an embroidered belt, 
boots, and gold spurs. Doubtless Lee supposed that the 
commander of all the armies of the Union, who was 
the victor in so many important battles, would be hardly 
less brilliantly uniformed for such an occasion than 
himself. But a courier was sent after Lee with a note 
from Grant, which proved to be the one written early 
that morning, declining an interview at 10 o'clock to 
discuss the subject of peace. 

Of course Lee was disappointed. The battles of 
Five Forks and Sailor's Creek were a sad reminder 
that his army was suffering a severe mortal dwindling, 
and being hemmed in on all sides, surrender was the 
only alternative. He therefore immediately sent Grant 
the following note: 



m, 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE BANDS 315 

"I received your note of this morning on the picket line 
wliither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what 
terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference 
to the surrender of this army. I now request an interview in 
accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for 
that purpose." 

Grant received this note at a point about eight miles 
east of Appomattox Court House. His headache, which 
had been continuous and extremely painful, instantly 
ceased, he says, when he saw the contents of Lee's note ; 
and immediately he wrote the following reply : 

"April 9, 1865. 
"General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. 8. Armies. 

"Your note of this date is but this moment (11:50 a.m.) 
received, in consequence of my having passed from the Richmond 
and Lynchburg road to the Farmville and Lynchburg road. I am 
at this writing about four miles west of Walker's church and will 
push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice 
sent to me on this road where you wish the interview to take 
place will meet me. U. S, Grant, Lieut. -General." 

This note was written three or four miles southeast 
of Appomattox, and was delivered to Lee by Colonel 
Babcock of Grant's staff, who was authorized to make 
necessary arrangements for the meeting of the two com- 
manders. General Alexander says in his Memoirs of a 
Confederate, that after reading Grant's note Lee said 
he would ride forward to meet Grant, but he was appre- 
hensive lest hostilities might begin in the rear on the 
termination of Meade's truce of one hour (which had 
been granted late in the forenoon). Colonel Babcock 
accordingly wrote to Meade to maintain the truce until 
orders from Grant could be received. To expedite mat- 



316 GRAXT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

ters the note was taken through the Confederate lines 
bj Colonel Forsyth of Sheridan's staff, accompanied by 
Colonel Taylor, Lee's adjutant. 

It was not strange that Lee feared hostilities might 
break out at this juncture of the negotiations. The 
general temper of both armies was peculiar. In the 
Confederate forces there were those who insisted on 
fighting to the last ditch. General Anderson says that 
the last thing Longstreet said to Lee as Grant's messen- 
ger was approaching, was : "General, unless he offers us 
honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out." 
Sheridan and his men, who were not quite satisfied 
with their great achievements in the Shenandoah and 
at Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, professed to believe 
that Lee's last note to Grant was only a ruse to enable 
the Confederates to escape and join Johnston, and he 
said that if Grant would let them go in they would 
whip the rebels where they were in five minutes. But 
Grant's cool judgment prevailed. He had absolute 
faith in Lee's sincerity in asking for terms, and when 
Sheridan became impressed with this fact he realized 
that his army had fought its last battle and won its 
last victory. 

Grant and his staff followed Colonel Babcock as 
early as possible, and on reaching Appomattox the Gen- 
eral was directed to the house of Major Wilmer 
McLean, where he found Lee and Colonel Marshall, 
his military secretary. When the meeting, which was 
quite cordial, took place between the two commanders, 



GRANT AND LEE 8HAKE HAND8 317 

Grant's full staff, and Sheridan and Ord were present, 
but the only officer accompanying Lee was Colonel Mar- 
shall.* 

In his Life and Letters of Lee, Dr. Jones states 
that he had the privilege once, in Lexington, Virginia, 
of hearing the General give his own account of the sur- 
render, which he says does not differ on any material 
point from that given by Grant in the Memoirs. From 
the moment these two great leaders in war met. Grant's 
whole object seemed to be ''to mitigate as far as lay in 
his power the bitterness of defeat and to soothe as far 
as he could the lacerated susceptibilities of Lee." And 
Dr. Bruce, in his Life of Lee, says : "As man and pa- 
triot. Grant, like Lee, was fully equal to all the highest 
demands upon character in that searching hour. . . 
No one understood more thoroughly than he the valor, 
fortitude, and constancy of the Army of :N'orthern Vir- 
ginia ; and to have that army at his mercy at last might 
well have raised undisguised exultation in his mind, 
and also called up irrepressible visions of the most daz- 
zling political honors. If such natural and justifiable 
thoughts occurred to him, there is no proof of the fact. 
'I felt like anything,' he himself said, 'rather than re- 
joicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long 

* The McLean house, though destined to immortality in history, 
met a ignominious end in 1893. Its owners projected a scheme of 
moving it to Washington, and to that end it was pulled down, each 
brick and timber being carefully numbered ; but the financial panic of 
that year so impoverished the projectors that they abandoned the 
plan, and the remains of the building now lie upon the ground in 
neglect and decay. — Munsey Magazine, 1908. 



318 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

and valiantly, and suffered so much for their cause,' 
generous hearted words which will be cherished by all 
his reunited countrymen to the remotest generations. 
Throughout those memorable scenes he remained, what 
he had always been — quiet, modest, unpretending, and 
magnanimous." Surely Lee must have found it infi- 
nitely easier to meet his comrade of the old army and 
talk with him about the terms of surrender than "to die 
a thousand deaths." 

Grant says that his own feelings, which had been 
quite jubilant on the receipt of Lee's letter of Sunday 
morning, were sad and depressed at the scene in the 
McLean house ; and after describing Lee's full uniform, 
which was entirely new, he adds : "In my rough travel- 
ing suit (with no sword) the uniform of a private with 
the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have con- 
trasted very strangely with a man so handsomely 
dressed, six feet high and of faultless form. 

"We soon fell into a conversation about old army 
times. He remarked that he remembered me very well 
in the old army ; and I told him that as matter of course 
I remembered him perfectly, but from the difference in 
our rank and years (there being about sixteen years dif- 
ference in our ages), I had thought it very likely that I 
had not attracted his attention sufficiently to be re- 
membered by him after such a long interval. Our con- 
versation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the 
subject of our meeting." This reminiscent mood into 
which the Generals had quickly drifted after their greet- 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 319 

ing, which was a happy prelude to the consideration of 
the great question of the hour, was closed temporarily 
only when Lee referred to the real purport of the inter- 
view, and asked Grant for the terms he proposed to give 
his army. Grant, with a firm voice, yet quiet and full 
of kindness, peculiar to him, replied that he meant that 
Lee's army should lay down their arms, not to take them 
up again during the continuance of the war unless duly 
exchanged ; and to this Lee assented. 

Grant was great and mysterious on many occasions 
during the war, but never more so than in the presence 
of his chief antagonist at Appomattox. He understood 
that he had no right to make political terms with Lee, 
but as to the surrender on a military basis, he did not 
consult the government at Washington as to what he 
should do. He took upon himself the full responsi- 
bility of according the most lenient treatment ever be- 
fore given to a vanquished foe. In his mental vision 
he saw that this w^as the quickest way to finish the war 
in all parts of the South, and in the magnanimity of his 
soul he gave Lee the following terms : 

"April 9, 1865. 
"General: In accordance with the substance of my letter 
to you of the 8th inst. I propose to receive the surrender of the 
Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls 
of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be 
given to an officer or officers as you may designate. The officers 
to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the 
government of the United States until properly exchanged; and 
each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for 
the men of their commands. . . . The arms, artillery, and 



320 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

public property to be packed and stacked, and turned over to the 
officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace 
the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses, or baggage. 
This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his 
home, not to be disturbed by the United States authority so long 
as tliey observe their paroles and the laws in force where they 
may reside. U. S. Gbant, Lieut.-Gen." 

After reading the terms Lee expressed himself Avell 

pleased with them, and he requested Colonel Marshall 

to write a note of acceptance. The note began with the 

words, "1 have the honor," etc., but the Confederate 

Commander, despite Grant's generosity which had 

never before been equalled in the history of the war, 

could not soften his feelings quite enough to permit the 

word "honor" to appear on the record, and when the 

acceptance was amended and handed to Grant it was 

in this form : , 

"General: I have received your letter of this date con- 
taining the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as 
those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are ac- 
cepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry 
the stipulation into effect. R. E. Lee, General." 

Grant could not be otherwise than kind to the enemy 
in such an hour as that. Before parting at Appo- 
mattox, which was about four o'clock, Sunday after- 
noon, Lee called Grant's attention to the fact that his 
army had been subsisting on parched corn for several 
days, and he asked the General if he could furnish them 
with some 25,000 rations. Grant promptly said Yes, 
and as terms of surrender "transcended in liberality 
anything that Lee could have fairly expected," so his 







"^^ y. -i 






GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 321 

generosity towards the famished enemy was greater 
than Lee could possibly have asked. Grant authorized 
Lee to send his own commissary and quartermaster to 
Appomattox station, two or three miles away, and call 
for all the rations his army needed. Grant did not 
pose as a conqueror. He was too modest and consider- 
ate to manifest pride over his great victory. Neither 
would he permit his army to become jubilant when the 
surrender was concluded. The same magnanimity 
which he showed Pemberton at Vicksburg was shown 
Lee at Appomattox — the ordering that no cheering or 
firing of salutes be allowed; and this simple form of 
surrender, says Dr. Jones in his book, won the highest 
admiration of Confederate soldiers and people. 

The country did not know what great things were 
transpiring at Appomattox on the afternoon of Palm 
Sunday, until Grant sent from his headquarters at 
4:30 o'clock on that day the following dispatch to the 
Secretary of War at Washington : 

"General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia 
this afternoon on terms proposed by myself." 

Thus, by a dramatic fitness, the last great battle of 
the war, and the final surrender of the enemy, took 
place upon the "sacred soil of the state which drank 
the blood of the patriotic heroes of July, 18G1." 

The reader need not be told of the joy which filled 
the Nation's heart when this message was flashed from 
Washington to all parts of the land. It occasioned 
the most widespread praise, rejoicing, and thanks- 



322 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

giving any country ever experienced. No more of 
Americans slaying Americans in battle. The Union 
was saved. But the little man, in the dress of a 
private soldier, who commanded the armies which 
brought about this glorious consummation, was not 
among those who joined in the demonstrations of joy. 
When he reached his camp that night he was none other 
than the real Grant — modest, quiet, regardless of the 
greatness of the occasion. General Horace Porter, 
who was with him at the time, says Grant had little to 
say about the surrender, and that it was not until after 
supper that he freely expressed his belief that the rest 
of the Confederate commanders would soon follow Lee's 
example. 

The day following the surrender. Grant and Lee, 
mounted on horses, had an interview between the lines 
at which matters of mutual interest were discussed. 
General Anderson says that during the meeting of the 
two generals on the 10th, Grant suggested to Lee that 
he might serve the course of peace by a visit to Presi- 
dent Davis and General Johnston who were then in 
N"orth Carolina, but Lee declined to go on such a mis- 
sion, as the surrender had made him a private citizen 
and he did not wish to interfere with the movements 
of either Davis or Johnston. 

When Lee surrendered there were 28,356 officers 
and men paroled. These were all that were left of the 
Army of Northern Virginia. During the eleven days 
previous to the historic Palm Sunday, in which the 



GRANT AND LEE SHAKE HANDS 323 

battles of Five Forks and Sailor's Creek were fought, 
19,132 Confederates were captured who were not in- 
cluded in the number paroled at Appomattox; and in 
estimating the strength of Lee's army when Grant be- 
gan his final movement against him, there must be 
added the enemy's losses during those eleven days, in 
killed, wounded, and missing, which would make Lee's 
fighting force on the last of March, 1865, considerably 
over 50,000; besides, the number of cannon taken in 
battle and at Appomattox and in the desperate battles 
a few days previous, was 689. Grant's fighting force 
against Lee was 125,000. 

These facts, taken from the official records, show 
that Lee's army was something more than a mere rem- 
nant two weeks prior to the surrender; and they are 
reproduced by Grant in the Memoirs to show that 
northern writers, as well as southern, have fallen into 
the error of magnifying the number of Union troops 
engaged in all important battles and belittling the 
strength of the Confederate forces. 




XXXV. 

THE LAST BATTLE-THE GRAND REVIEW. 

TIE arrangements for paroling the Army of 
Northern Virginia were completed when 
Grant appointed Generals Gibbon, Merrit, 
and Griffin to carry into effect the terms 
agreed to on Sunday, and Lee had designated Generals 
Longstreet, Gordon, and Pendleton to assist in the work. 
Believing that the war had practically ended, Grant 
departed for Washington on Tuesday the 11th of April, 
to stop the enormous expense of furnishing supplies for 
an army of nearly one million strong, 600,000 of which 
were in the field ready for any movement the Com- 
mander-in-chief might deem necessary. During 
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week, the 
General was busily engaged in issuing all necessary 
orders and instructions to meet this new condition of 
affairs. The work having been finished in the after- 
noon of the 14th, Grant made arrangements to start 
from Washington that niglit with Mrs. Grant to visit 



THE LAST BATTLE— THE GRAND REVIEW 325 

their children at Burlington, New Jersey, and while 
preparing for this journey he was invited by the Presi- 
dent to accompany him and Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's 
theatre in the evening; but the General's pre-arranged 
plan to leave the city made it impossible for him to 
accept the invitation. 

When Grant reached Philadelphia, near midnight, 
he found an excited multitude awaiting him, and also 
dispatches informing him of the assassination of the 
President. The import of the telegrams was that the 
presence in Washington of the Commander-in-chief of 
the National forces would allay serious apprehensions. 
As quickly as possible Grant returned by a special train 
to the Capital, to find the city overwhelmed with grief. 
As quickly as the assassin's shot could be fired the 
Nation's noon of joy was merged in the midnight of 
sorrow. 

With the surrender at Appomattox there was not a 
glimmer of hope for any other portion of the Con- 
federate army to escape the fate of the Army of North- 
ern Virginia. General Joseph E. Johnston, in North 
Carolina, had the strongest force in the field, but on the 
18th of April, seeing that the Confederacy was col- 
lapsing, he entered into an agreement with Sherman, 
who was pressing him to the death, to make a condi- 
tional surrender under truce which was to remain in 
force until the agreement could be sent to Washington 
for approval. As is well known, Sherman added to the 
terms Grant had given Lee some matters of a political 



326 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

character. It was quite natural that Sherman should 
make such conditional terms with Johnston, and Grant 
says that he no doubt thought he was but carrying out 
the wishes of President Lincoln — intimating, it seems, 
that this thought was based on a conversation with 
Lincoln at the conference held at Hampton Roads on 
the 28th of March. But there were stronger reasons 
than this which led Sherman to include a little political 
matter in the agreement with Johnston, subject, of 
course, to the approval of the Administration. The 
order of the President of the 3rd of March instructing 
Grant to make no political terms with Lee had not been 
sent to Sherman by Stanton, and the latter never com- 
municated with him in advance the purpose of the 
Administration to limit negotiations with the enemy 
to purely military matters. In addition to this, Sher- 
man justifies himself in making those conditional terms 
with Johnston by stating that when Stanton w^as at 
Savannah, after the famous march to the sea had split 
the Confederacy in twain, the Secretary authorized him 
to control all matters civil and military. 

The agreement was repudiated by the Administra- 
tion, and before Sherman could be informed of this 
action Stanton caused the document, together with the 
seal of condemnation, to be made public, which was an 
unwarranted insult to Sherman ; and Grant says that 
his o^vn feelings were as much excited by this outrage 
as Sherman's. It was not a document to be publicly 
condemned in a vituperative spirit, as was done by 



THE LAST BATTLE— THE GRAND REVIEW 327 

Stanton, but to be privately considered by President 
Johnson and his cabinet, and if annulled, to be returned 
to Sherman for correction. 

We get from this incident another" illustration of the 
beautiful friendship between Grant and Sherman, one 
which shows the sublime unselfishness of the Command- 
er-in-chief. On April 21st, Grant was directed by 
Stanton to proceed immediately to Sherman's head- 
quarters at Raleigh, N'orth Carolina, and take charge of 
the operations against the enemy, or in other words, to 
supersede his friend Sherman. The General departed 
for the South at once, but with a definite purpose to pay 
no heed to Stanton's order to direct further movements 
against Johnston. True friend that he was to Sher- 
man, Grant did not propose to humiliate him by seem- 
ing to be ofiicious in commanding what should be done 
with Johnston, neither would he take from him the 
honor of receiving the surrender of the enemy. Quietly 
he entered Ealeigh, but few of the officers of the army 
knowing that he was present. 

Privately conferring with Sherman, Grant showed 
him the terms with Lee, and told him to inform John- 
ston that the conditional agreement of the 18th had been 
revoked by the President and the Secretary of War, and 
that he had full authority to offer him the same terms 
on which Lee surrendered to Grant. This was as far 
as Grant went in obeying Stanton's instructions to 
take charge of the operations against the enemy. When 
Sherman told Johnston that the agreement of the 18th 



328 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

had been repudiated at Washington, and that he must 
follow Lee's example in surrendering, Johnston yield- 
ed to the inevitable, and on the 26th of April a full sur- 
render was made. Not willing to take to himself credit 
for what had been done, Grant telegraphed the Govern- 
ment, "Johnston has surrendered to Sherman" ; and as 
quietly as he entered Raleigh, Grant departed from it 
and returned to Washington. The number of Con- 
federates laying down their arms in Johnston's com- 
mand was 89,270.* 

After the surrender of Johnston the disintegration 
of the Confederacy was rapid. Within a few days all 
forts and garrisons fell. On the 4th of May, General 
Dick Taylor, son of General Zachary Taylor, of Mexi- 
can War fame, and afterwards President, surrendered 
all his command east of the Mississippi, and General 
James H. Wilson made a cavalry raid through Florida 
and Georgia which resulted in the capture of Jefferson 
Davis on the 11th of May at Irwinsville. General E. 
Kirby Smith, commanding the trans-Mississippi de- 
partment, surrendered to General Canby on the 26th of 
May. 

The work of the Grand Army of the Republic was 
accomplished. The Union was no longer threatened 
by an armed foe. But the armies of the East and of the 
Middle West could not stack their arms and rejoin the 



•At the funeral of General Sherman (he died In New York, Febru- 
ary 14th, 1891) the Confederate commander, Joseph E. Johnston, was 
one of the pall-bearers. 



TEE LAST BATTLE— THE ORAND REVIEW 329 

great body of citizens without making one more march 
which will ever be memorable in the history of the 
volunteers in the Civil War. It was ordered by the 
Adjutant General of the army, that the Army of the 
Potomac, and so much of the army of Sherman as was 
stationed within marching distance of Washington, 
should pass in review before the President and General 
Grant on the 23rd and 24th of May. One week had 
been devoted by the officials in Washington to preparing 
for the event. The weather behaved remarkably well. 
On a platform in front of the White House were the 
President, Grant, members of the cabinet. Judges of 
the Supreme Court, and many prominent generals and 
admirals of the army and navy. 

Tuesday, with its golden sun, inaugurated the 
grandest military pageant ever witnessed on this Ameri- 
can continent. The day was given to the Army of the 
Potomac headed by General Meade. This Army had 
fought more hard battles, suffered greater losses, and 
made more successful flank movements in the short 
space of six weeks (from May 4th to June 18th, 1864) 
than any army of which we have record. It was a 
formidable host — 100,000 strong. It started from "the 
shadow of the dome of the capitol and filled that wide 
thoroughfare (Pennsylvania avenue) to Georgetown, 
moving with the easy yet rapid pace of well trained 
veterans." 

Wednesday, the 24th, was a great day for Sherman's 
armv which had made the victorious march from 



330 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

Atlanta to the Sea — famous in song and story. The 
General rode at the head of the column composed of 
65,000 rugged and orderly soldiers. The General and 
his troops, and the music, Marching Through Georgia, 
which was inseparable from the occasion, "were re- 
ceived by the dense multitude that thronged the avenue 
with a deafening and prolonged tumult of rapturous 
plaudits." 

There were several regiments from the West in 
Meade's army, and the East contributed the contingent 
which Howard and Hooker took to Chattanooga and 
afterward remained in the Middle West, but in the 
main Sherman's troops were Western men, therefore, 
say Nicolay and Hay, ''in the review, they were scanned 
with keen and hospitable interest by the vast crowd of 
spectators who were mainly from the East. There was 
little to choose between the two armies ; a trifle more of 
neatness and discipline, perhaps, among the veterans of 
Meade, a slight preponderance in physique and in 
swinging vigor of march among the Westerners ; but the 
trivial differences were lost in the immense and evident 
likeness, as of brothers in one family. There was a 
touch of the grotesque in the march of Sherman's 
legions which was absent from the well-ordered corps 
of Meade. 

"As a mere spectacle, this march of the mightest 
host the continent has ever seen gathered together was 
grand and imposing, but it was not as a spectacle alone 
that it affected the beholder most deeply. It was not 



THE LAST BATTLE— THE GRAND REVIEW 331 

a mere holiday parade; it was an army of citizens on 
their way home after a long and terrible war. And the 
thoughtful diplomatists who looked on the scene from 
the reviewing stand could not help seeing that there was 
a conservative force in an intelligent democracy which 
the world had never before known." 

Thus ended on Wednesday a peaceful demonstration 
of volunteer soldiers such as no other laud ever saw, and 
as this land will never see again. The great armies 
which had saved the Union passed up Pennsylvania 
Avenue out of mortal sight and into everlasting history. 
Henceforth and forever the names of the armies of the 
Potomac and of the Middle West are names to conjure 
with. The irresistible force of this mighty host, which 
had been wielded in battle for four long years, was to 
melt away and vanish in a day, but their great deeds 
were recorded and they left behind results far greater 
than themselves — imperishable achievements in the 
world's constant contest for human rights. 

Horace Greeley, in complimenting the soldiers in 
this Grand Keview and their comrades in other de- 
partments of the great battle field, closes his American 
Conflict with this sentence : "Kapidly, as well as peace- 
fully and joyously, were the mightiest hosts ever called 
to the field by a republic restored to the tranquil paths 
of industry and thrift, melting back by regiments into 
quiet citizenship, with nothing to distinguish them from 
others, but the proud consciousness of having served 
and saved their country." 




XXXVI. 

GRANT AS A COMMANDER. 

RANT as a commander will ever be the 
theme of a story of peculiar interest. As 
a campaigner, and a winner of battles, his- 
tory does not furnish his superior, and but 
few, if any, who are his equal. From the day he com- 
manded the 21st Illinois Infantry to the event at Ap- 
pomattox, he was successful in every great military 
operation under his immediate direction. He never 
lost a battle when he fought the enemy in the open ; 
and when he began a movement against his antagonist, 
as in the Virginia campaign, though twice temporarily 
checked because of the enemy's entrenchments. Grant 
did not swerve from his main purpose, and in the end 
he was successful. He stands pre-eminent among all 
the generals who served in the Civil War in the com- 
pleteness of his final results. He owed nothing to 
accident; and both in the West and the East, he ac- 
complished the most arduous undertakings. 



GRANT AS A COMMANDER 333 

If anyone is so dull or prejudiced that he sees 
nothing great in Grant beyond his marvellous tenacity 
of will, let him explain, if he can, how it came to pass 
that this quality was always exerted in conspicuous 
energy, precisely at the point on which everything in 
his whole sphere of operations hinged. He never dis- 
played great qualities on small occasions ; he never put 
forth herculean efforts to accomplish objects not of the 
first magnitude. 

Many military critics have wondered where Grant 
got his genius. It had never been displayed on any 
occasion previous to the Civil War. The late George 
S. Boutwell, United States Senator from Massachu- 
setts, says Grant's military genius was simply a part 
of his nature; God gave it to him; and almost by in- 
tuition he knew what should be done in an emergency. 
"Grant could go on the field and post a line of battle 
in twenty minutes, while another military man who 
had been a hard student, might take a day or two to do 
the same thing." Grant's military genius was remark- 
ably displayed in the Vicksburg campaign, and at 
Chattanooga ; and his capability of grasping with suc- 
cess the whole situation at a glance, was fully recog- 
nied when he was given command of all the armies of 
the Union. 

When the Army of the Tennessee held its annual 
meeting in Chicago in November, 1879, Colonel Wil- 
liam F. Vilas, a Democrat of the old school, afterwards 



334 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

a member of President Cleveland's cabinet and United 
States Senator from Wisconsin, said, in his great ora- 
tion on Grant : 

"How like a weapon in a giant's hand, did he wield 
the vast aggregations of soldiery, whose immensity op- 
pressed so many minds! How every soldier came to 
feel his participation a direct contribution to the gen- 
eral success ! And when, at length, his merit won the 
government of the entire military power of the I^orth, 
how perfect became, without noise or friction, the 
cooperation of every army, of every strength through- 
out the wide territory of the war, toward the common 

end Then how rapidly crumbled on every 

side the crushed revolt! Where shall we find in past 
records the tale of such a struggle, so enormous in ex- 
tent, so nearly matched at the outset, so desperately 
contested, so effectively decided! Through what a 
course of uninterrupted victories did he proceed from 
the earliest engagements to a complete dominion of the 
vast catastrophe !" 

James G. Blaine was a candid critic, and when 
asked to deliver an address on Grant at Portland, Me. 
August 8th, 1885, speaking of his genius as a comman- 
der, he said : 

"Grant's military supremacy was honestly earned, 
without factious praise and without extraneous help. 
He had no influence to urge his promotion except such 
as was attracted by his own achievements. He had no 
potential friends except those whom his victories won to 



GRANT AS A COMMANDER 335 

his support. He exhibited extraordinary qualities in 
the field. Bravery among American officers is a rule 
which has, happily, had few exceptions ; but as an emi- 
nent general said, 'Grant possessed a quality above 
bravery. He had an insensibility to danger, appar- 
ently, an unconsciousness of fear. Besides that, he 
possessed an evenness of judgment to be depended upon 
in sunshine and in storm.' Napoleon said, 'The rarest 
attribute among generals is 2 o'clock-in-the-morning 
courage.' ISTo better description could be given of the 
type of courage which distinguished General Grant. 
In his services in the field he never once exhibited inde- 
cision, and it was this quality that gave him his crown- 
ing characteristic as a military leader. He inspired 
his men with a sense of their invincibility and they were 
thenceforth invincible." 

These glowing tributes to Grant's genius and success 
as a military leader are fully supported by the record 
of his career all through the Civil War, particularly 
when he was present with the Army of the Potomac. 
It has been said in a preceding chapter that previous 
to his promotion to supreme command of the National 
forces, the army in the East had been under the leader- 
ship of five different generals between 1861 and the 
spring of 1864, and during that period an army of 
159,000 Union men had been consumed without the at- 
tainment of any immediate or significant result. Antie- 
tam had been fought in Maryland between 87,000 
Union troops under McClellan, and Confederate forces 



336 GRANT, TEE MAN OF MYSTERY 

variously estimated at from 45,000 to 70,000; but Lee 
was permitted to recross the Potomac, and to invade 
Pennsylvania the following year and bring on the des- 
perate struggle at Gettysburg. There, between 70,000 
and 80,000 were engaged on each side, and although it 
was a Union victory, Meade gave Lee a week or more in 
which to retreat across the Potomac, and later, to defy 
the Union forces to meet him in battle on Virginia soil. 

However favorable at the time may have been the 
moral effect of Lee's retreat from Antietam and Gettys- 
burg, it seems that it was only temporary, for in the 
winter of 1864 there was widespread unrest in the 
North, and much anxiety in Administration circles in 
Washington regarding the condition of affairs on the 
Potomac. At the time Grant was called to the East, 
the Union cause in that department was not more hope- 
ful than when General McDowell marched to Bull Run 
to meet inglorious defeat at the hands of General Beau- 
regard, July 21st, 1861, in the first hard fought battle 
of the war. 

Some writers have charged Grant with "dogged 
pertinacity" in rushing his men into battle regardless 
of conditions; but they seem to forget that before he 
could cause the downfall of Richmond or compass the 
final overthrow of Lee's army, he had as sanguinary 
battles to fight as had ever been fought in any part of 
the great field of the Civil War ; and that he lost 15,000 
fewer men in bringing the war to an end than were sac- 



GRANT AS A COMMANDER 337 

rificed during the previous three years in the fruitless 
attempts to crush the Army of Northern Virginia. 

When Grant went to the East at the urgent request 
of Lincoln and Stanton, it was to whip Lee and make 
him stay whipped. On this point the Comte de Paris 
says Grant had to be invested with the supreme com- 
mand before the ideas of the President and the Secre- 
tary of War yielded to the principles of sound strategy. 
The Army of the Potomac had never before seen such a 
hard and determined fighter as Grant. In this connec- 
tion it must be borne in mind that whether great losses 
in battle are justified depends upon the results obtained. 
Grant lost 124,000 men from the time he entered the 
Wilderness to the capture of Lee's army at Appomattox. 
But not in a single battle during those eleven months 
did he take one step backward. Every movement he 
made took him nearer the accomplishment of his su- 
preme purpose — the saving of the Union. 

It has been said by an unnamed writer on the cam- 
paign in Virginia, that Grant did not fight battles 
merely to win victories or to kill the enemy's soldiers, 
but to capture the opposing army and remove it from 
the field of hostile action ; "and in this object he was 
conspicuously successful, even as compared with Na- 
poleon. When Grant fought a battle he intended it 
should be a Waterloo, and that the army which opposed 
him should never fight him again. In this respect he 
was a Caesar." 



338 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYHTERY 

Lee's opinion of Grant as a commander is related 
by General James Grant Wilson. Shortly after the 
war, when an unfriendly critic referred to Grant as a 
military accident whose success had been won through 
a combination of fortunate circumstances, Lee an- 
swered : ''Your opinion is a poor compliment to mc. 
We all thought Richmond, protected as it was by our 
splendid fortifications and defended by our army of 
veterans, could not be taken. Yet Grant turned his 
face to our capital, and he never turned it away until we 
had surrendered. Now I have carefully searched the 
military records of both ancient and modern history 
and have never found Grant's superior as a general. 
I doubt if his superior can be found in all history." 

Apply to Grant what test you may ; measure him by 
the magnitude of the obstacles he overcame, by his in- 
domitable will and ceaseless energy, by the peculiar 
methods he adopted in fighting his battles, by the 
achievements of his illustrious co-workers, by the sure- 
ness with which he directed his marvellous force to the 
vital point which was the key to the vast field of opera- 
tion, by the fame of the antagonist over whom he tri- 
umphed, and is it any wonder that such a military 
genius and brilliant and daring strategist made the 
Vicksburg siege the greatest in history, that the most 
dramatic battle of the Civil War, or of any war, he 
won at Chattanooga, that he finished the war at Appo- 
mattox, and the last great scene in the tragedy of the 
Rebellion filled the world with his fame ? 



GRANT AS A COMMANDER 339 

John Fiske, the distinguished philosopher and his- 
torian, says Grant "possessed very high qualities; the 
combination of self-reliant, fertile resources and vigor 
in action was perhaps never more perfectly realized 
than in his wonderful campaign in the rear of Vicks- 
burg. He was invariably patient and equable in tem- 
per in the most trying circumstances, neither elevated 
by success nor cast down by ill-fortune. For dogged 
persistency he has never been surpassed ; . . . and 
if there were anything especially difficult for him to en- 
dure it was the sight of human suffering, as was shown 
on the night at Shiloh, where he lay out doors in the icy 
rain rather than stay in a comfortable room where the 
surgeons were at work. Although in spite of some 
shortcomings. Grant was a massive, noble, and lovable 
personality, well fit to be numbered as one of the heroes 
of a great nation." 

Thus is characterized a commander who was never 
allured by military glory, and who never manifested a 
military spirit. It has been truly written of him, 
notwithstanding he was the greatest warrior of his 
time, that he was above all things else a lover of peace. 

Finally, with the same genius and high purpose 
with which Lincoln administered the office of Presi- 
dent, Grant, as commander-in-chief of the army, con- 
ducted all his campaigns to subdue rebellion. Lincoln 
was the guiding force in the darkest days in American 
history, and Grant was the hope and inspiration of that 
army which had volunteered to risk their lives for a 



340 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

righteous cause. Grant never took a step backward. 
From first to last he was conqueror. Under the most 
desperate conditions he held himself together as with 
a chain of steel. He had "the most extraordinary 
military temperament the world has ever seen." 

In all the centuries from Caesar to Napoleon there 
has not lived a warrior who so beautifully and com- 
pletely manifested the God-given spirit of tenderness 
and magnanimity toward a fallen foe as Grant. As 
commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, he not 
only displayed the characteristics of genius, but the 
most modest and lovable traits of character; and thus 
measuring him by what he accomplished in four years 
of war and what he was in purity of purpose and 
charity for those over whom he was victor, he will ever 
remain^singular and solitary" the Man of Mystery, 
one of the grandest characters in all history. 




XXXVII. 

A REMARKABLE HOME-COMING. 

X the summer of 1865 Grant was the one 
man upon whom the eye of the nation was 
focused. The kindness shown him by in- 
dividuals, associations, corporations, and 
Congress, was heart-warming. An incident which 
pleased Grant greatly was his visit to West Point in 
June, 1865, where he met General Winfield Scott, 
under whom he had served as a lieutenant in the Mexi- 
can War. As I have stated in a previous chapter, the 
veteran general said of Grant during the Civil War: 
"I remember him as a young lieutenant of undaunted 
courage, but giving no promise of anything beyond 
ordinary ability." But at the meeting at the Academy 
in 1865, Scott, being then seventy-nine, presented to 
Grant a copy of his Memoirs which bore the inscrip- 
tion : "From the oldest to the greatest general." 

The gifts bestowed upon Grant were numerous, and 
included a gold medal by Congress, swords, honorary 



342 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

titles, horses and carriages, money, and houses. The 
citizens of Galena gave him a beautiful house, ready 
for occupancy, which occupied one of the most pic- 
turesque and charming situations in the city. The 
Union League of Philadelphia presented him with a 
furnished house which cost $30,000. And his friends 
in !New York gave him one hundred thousand dollars 
as a token of their appreciation of his great services to 
his country. 

But the gratitude of the people was not limited to 
the bestowment of gifts. Receptions were tendered 
him by many cities in the East, South, West, and in 
Canada. In Montreal, New York, and Chicago he was 
greeted with unbounded enthusiasm. But in his jour- 
neyings he did not forget the little village of George- 
town, Ohio, where he spent nearly sixteen years of his 
boyhood. Here he made an address composed of 
eighty-two words, a longer speech than he made in any 
of the large cities he visited. 

But the most significant of all the General's recep- 
tions during that summer was at Galena, which he had 
not visited since he was commissioned colonel of the 
Twenty-first Illinois in June, 1861. It is doubtful if 
there can be found in the history of man a more ex- 
pressive or important home-coming than his visit to the 
little lead-mining city on the 18th of August, 1865. 
The metropolis of the lead district of the West had had 
many golden days in its history, but it had never had 
an event compared with that of August 18th. 



A REMARKABLE HOMECOMINO 343 

The contrast between the darkest and coldest night 
of winter and the warm and delightful sunshine of a 
summer's day is not greater than that between the de- 
parture of Captain Grant from Galena for Springfield 
on April 26th, 1861, with a company of volunteers in 
which he held no position of rank, and the return home 
of Lieutenant-General Grant after the war. What 
mighty things he had accomplished in the brief period 
between his departure in 1861 and his return in 1865 ! 
In forty-eight months he had made more history that 
will be read with thrilling interest, than was ever made 
by man in so few years. 

This once humble townsman, to all appearances 
without a definite or high purpose in life, had leaped 
into fame more rapidly than any military leader in the 
annals of war. In less than three years he had risen 
from a copying clerk in the Adjutant General's ofiice in 
Springfield, to the supreme command of a million of 
men, divided into many great armies and operating 
over an area as large as the empire of Germany and 
Austria combined. It was this remarkable fact that 
gave to the home-coming of Grant extraordinary interest 
and enthusiasm. 

With exultant pride, Grant's fellow-townsmen left 
nothing undone to give him a fitting welcome. It was 
only yesterday — so short did the time seem — that he 
departed from the city, with a small carpetbag in hand, 
an unknown man, to seek a position in which he might 
be of service to his country. To-day he returns by 



344 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

special train, luxuriously equipped, and is greeted with 
the cheers and plaudits of a vast throng of his fellow- 
citizens. Yesterday he left for Springfield, so lacking 
in personal influence that he was in a wilderness of 
doubt as to how Fortune would behave toward him. 
To-day he brings home a record of service written high- 
est on America's roll of military fame. 

People came by the thousands from all parts of 
northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin — and even 
from other states — to join in the great demonstration. 
Business was largely suspended in the city. Flags were 
flying everywhere. Banners bearing appropriate de- 
vices were displayed in many places. A triumphal arch 
spanned Main Street, which bore the inspiring motto, 
"Hail to the Chief who in Triumph Advances." On 
the platform were thirty-six beautiful young women 
dressed in white, each waving an American flag, and 
each having a bouquet to fling at the General as he 
passed under the arch. 

It would be futile to attempt to describe adequately 
the stirring scene when the unobtrusive little man 
ascended the platform in company with many distin- 
guished friends. The moment was a severe trial to one 
so retiring and bashful as Grant. The facing of such 
a multitude in his home-town, and the thunder of ap- 
plause, which was long-continued, seemed to bewilder 
him, and he blushed like a school-girl. When silence 
was restored, Mr. Elihu B. Washburne gave the address 
of welcome ; but the man who could save a nation could 



A REMARKABLE HOMECOMING 345 

not express his feelings to such an outpouring of people 
at such a time, and it was arranged that the General's 
former pastor, now Bishop Vincent, should speak for 
him in response to the address of Mr. Washburne. 

Music and addresses closed the exercises on the 
platform in the afternoon, and in the evening a recep- 
tion was given at the custom house. Many thousands 
could see the General on the platform or in the carriage 
as he rode through the streets, but it was a physical 
impossibility for all who wished to shake hands with 
him to have their desires gratified. Only those who 
were fortunate enough to get a position not far from the 
entrance of the custom house, early in the evening, and 
could endure being jammed as tightly as if squeezed 
in a vise, had the pleasure of personally greeting the 
conquering hero. I had the privilege of attending four 
receptions given to Grant — the one at Galena, and three 
others after his journey around the world, but his home- 
coming seemed to touch him most deeply. This should 
cause no wonder. He was then on the scene of his hard 
and last struggle with misfortune and failure before the 
Civil War. He was fresh from the field of the great 
American conflict, in which he had risen with amazing 
rapidity from what seemed hopeless obscurity to world- 
wide fame. And on this occasion he was subjected to 
the constant gaze of his proud and admiring neighbors 
as well as of thousands of the curious from far and 
near. The circumstances and surroundings in this case 
appeared to impress him more peculiarly and pro- 



346 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

foiindly than any other reception at which I had met 
him. 

In the evening it was announced by someone in the 
receiving circle that the ex-soldiers and officers to be 
presented to the General should give their names and 
commands. Early in the reception, an officer who had 
met him in the war, and who immediately preceded 
me in the line, gave his name and regiment, and on be- 
ing presented, was at once recognized by the General. 
A beam of pleasure seemed to possess his face, but this 
was only momentary; for when the officer blurted out, 
"General, this is a proud day for you ; you are having a 
grand ovation," Grant's countenance suddenly became 
serious and bore the aspect of weariness; and in a 
modest tone, mixed with embarrassment, he responded : 
"The people are very kind to — ," but the sentence was 
not finished, the line was pressing hard upon him, and 
thus it continued until his weariness made it necessary 
to end the reception at an early hour. 

Grant could never be made joyful by the blandish- 
ments of sycophants, or by those who sought to shower 
him with praise for his service to his country. He was 
a lover of simplicity and hard sense, and had never 
manifested elation over any victory. It is doubtful if 
Horace Porter, John Eussell Young, Bishop Vincent, 
or anyone else who saw much of him, either in a great 
campaign or at any notable function given in his honor, 
in time of peace, ever knew him to exhibit a spirit of 
self-gratulation. Even at the magnificent review in 



A REMARKABLE HOME-COMING 347 

Washington, at which, bj virtue of his high rank and 
many victories, he should have been the central figure, 
he walked with some members of his staff from the head- 
quarters of the army to the reviewing stand in front of 
the White House, and to all appearances was not more 
than a spectator at the brilliant military pageant — an 
event made possible by his successful generalship. 

Grant was now the most popular man in America, 
and invitations to accept the hospitality of municipali- 
ties came from many parts of the land. It was his wish 
to visit certain parts of the Northwest, and a railway 
company generously tendered him a special train with 
which he was privileged to make any excursion he de- 
sired ; and in this tender there was no restriction placed 
upon the number or character of his guests. 

The real Grant was manifest in the choice of his 
company on this excursion. Bishop Vincent says the 
General did not take into account wealth or social po- 
sition. He chose as his guests old friends and com- 
rades who had been kind and faithful to him in the days 
when he was obscure and poor. Of such men and 
women was the company composed which joined him 
on the excursion; but among all the guests there was 
none so unassuming, or who gave so little evidence of 
personal pride, as Grant himself. Wherever the ex- 
cursion went he was received by an enthusiastic multi- 
tude. From beginning to end it was a triumphal 
march. He could not say much when called on for a 
speech, but another spoke for him. He was to be seen 



348 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

and not heard; and seeing him was to see the greatest 
one-man power in the realm of arms the nineteenth 
century had produced. 

Grant's control of his emotions, his never-failing 
modesty, his trustful simplicity, and the constancy with 
which he pursued the noiseless tenor of his way will 
always be a mystery. It was always his wish — so far 
as he was personally concerned — to travel in a manner 
free from any appearance of ostentation. A story is 
told that when he was going northward in the autumn 
of 1864 (presumably in the latter part of September, to 
make a brief visit to his family at Burlington, N. J.), 
he wore clothes of the common sort ; and when a news- 
boy entered the train and called out, "Life of General 
Grant," an aide suggested to the boy that he might "sell 
one to the gentleman over there" — pointing to the Gen- 
eral. Going to the man, who wore no insignia of rank, 
the young vendor of papers and books said: "Life of 
General Grant, mister ? New Life of Grant ?" The 
General, in an indifferent tone, wanted to know "who 
is this all about?" With much indignation the boy 
replied: "You must be a darned greeny not to know 
who General Grant is." The General surrendered, and 
bought the book. 

Grant had no desire for brilliant functions or noisy 
demonstrations; and it was observed frequently when 
he was travelling in a finely-equipped coach that he 
would generally leave his private car to go to one for- 
ward and smoke and talk with strangers. 



A REMARKABLE HOMECOMING 349 

Reviewing Grant's life from the time he became 
famous as a commander to the close of his remarkable 
career, it is not inappropriate to apply to him what 
Emilio Castelar said of Lincoln, in the Spanish Cortes : 
"He was the humblest of the humble before his own 
conscience, the greatest of the great before history." 




XXXVIII. 

GRANT AND THE PRESIDENCY. 

T the close of the war, and after the death 
of Lincoln, Grant was the first citizen of 
the Republic. Lincoln's successor, Andrew 
Johnson, became involved in a bitter quar- 
rel with Congress over his reconstruction policy, and 
sought to use Grant's unbounded popularity as a make- 
weight in promoting his plans. The General refused 
to become involved in political dissensions, and gave his 
whole strength to the work of disbanding the army, re- 
pressing disorder in the South, and restoring normal 
conditions throughout the region desolated by the war. 
In August, 1867, President Johnson suspended the 
Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, the only member 
of Lincoln's Cabinet remaining in office, and appointed 
Grant secretary ad interim. It was a most delicate 
and trying position, and could not but bring about dis- 
agreeable complications. Grant made sincere and 
earnest efforts to discharge his duties in a fair and 



GRANT AND THE tttESIDENCY 351 

impartisaii manner, and when ordered to remove Gen- 
eral Sheridan, he made a definite attempt to check the 
President in his insane and disastrous policy, which 
was rapidly alienating the loyal people of the l^orth; 
but finding himself misunderstood on all sides, he re- 
lapsed into his usual silence. The following January 
the Senate refused to sanction the suspension of Stan- 
ton, and Grant at once surrendered the office. 

When the convention called to nominate a Eepubli- 
can candidate for the Presidency met in Chicago, May 
20th, 1868, only one name was presented. After the 
roll-call, amid boundless enthusiasm, the chairman an- 
nounced : "Gentlemen of the convention, the roll is com- 
pleted. You have 650 votes and you have given 650 
votes for Ulysses S. Grant." In accepting the nomina- 
tion Grant declared his purpose to execute the will of 
the people without laying down any policy that he 
would invariably follow, and closed with the famous 
words, "Let us have peace." 

During a strenuous campaign, the opposition resorted 
to every means to discredit him and made the most 
virulent attacks upon his personal character. Grant 
remained silent and took no part in the campaign. He 
i-(etired to his little home in Galena, received his 
friends, drove and walked about the streets, took tea 
and chatted in the most familiar way with his neigh- 
bors, and seemed totally unconscious of the fact that he 
was the central figure in one of the great political 
struggles of the century. 



352 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

While be had reason to say some sharp things 
against the peculiar policy of President Johnson, Grant 
confined his action in this matter to a few lines in a 
letter to Mr. E. B. Washburne, which are as humorous 
as they are pointed. Congress adjourned in the latter 
part of the summer, and the letter was written Sep- 
tember 23rd: 

"I feared the effect of legislation at this time, and then, too, 
if Congress had remained in session it would prevent A. J. from 
taking his proposed trip to East Tennessee. I have as much 
affection for him as Frank Blair had for the 'Finnigans,' and 
would go just as far as Frank was willing to go to see him off, 
and would hold out every inducement to have him remain." 

Grant was elected by an overwhelming majority, and 
he entered upon the duties of his high office on March 
4th, 1869. The best evidence of his fitness for the place 
and the success of his administration, was that at the 
end of his term it was felt to be absolutely necessary 
for the continued stability of the government and the 
prosperity of the country that he should be continued 
in the executive office. 

It is difficult in a few pages to review the eight 
years of his administration. Questions of the greatest 
importance, upon which the wisest and most patriotic 
men differed, were up for discussion and settlement, and 
in many cases he was compelled to make the final de- 
cision. All untrained in matters of civil administra- 
tion, he came to the head of a government whose very 
existence had been threatened throughout four years of 
civil war, and which had been torn by dissensions dur- 



GRANT AND THE PRESIDENCY 353 

ing the stormy administration of his predecessor. That 
he should make mistakes was inevitable. Trained in 
military affairs, it was natural that he should think 
of his official advisers as members of his staff, and 
choose them for personal rather than political reasons. 
If Lincoln erred, it was on the side of mercy; and if 
Grant fell into error while President, it was because of 
his loyalty to his friends. It is possible that at times 
he might have been somewhat blinded by his friend- 
ships. He could not forget those who had been kind 
to him in his days of adversity. His great Secretary of 
State, Hamilton Fish, says of him: "His knowledge 
of men was generally accurate ; but he was apt, in this 
respect, as in others, to reach his conclusions rapidly, 
and was thus not infrequently led to give his confidence 
where it was not deserved ; and it was from the abuse of 
his confidence, thus reposed, that arose most of the 
censure which, after the close of the war, was visited 
upon him." But he was sincere, patriotic, incorriip- 
tible, and straightforward, and the people trusted him. 
Whatever the criticisms in smaller matters and details 
of administration, when it came to great questions upon 
which the peace and prosperity of the country depended, 
he saw as by an unerring instinct through all sophistries 
to the heart of the matter, and stood like a rock against 
the selfish schemes of individuals or the clamor of the 
unthinking crowd. 

Of all the public men who opposed Grant, Charles 
Sumner was the most virulent. In a bitter speech, de- 



354 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYf^TERY 

livered in the United States Senate, May 20tli, 1872, 
he charged the President with having turned the White 
House into a military headquarters. But the fact is tliat 
at the time Sumner made the attack on Grant, there 
were only three officers in the White House — Colonel 
O. E. Babcock, Colonel Frederick T. Dent, and Colonel 
Horace Porter — who had served on Grant's staff during 
the war, and were then on Sherman's staff, and were 
detailed at the White House for clerical duty. They 
loved Grant as did all the officers who served with him ; 
and to assist the President was a labor of love, for 
neither one of them received one cent of compensation 
beyond his pay as an officer of the army. 

A finer illustration of Grant's simplicity in public 
life and his perfect freedom from a military spirit, 
cannot be found than that given by United States 
Senator Matthew H. Carpenter in a speech delivered 
in the Senate on the 3rd of June, 1872. In answering 
Sumner's charge of militarism, Mr. Carpenter said : 

"When Grant took possession of the White House, it was 
patrolled by sentinels day and night; so was the War Depart- 
ment; so was the residence of Mr. Seward. The first night Grant 
slept in the President's House, after retiring he heard the tramp 
of soldiers in the hall below, and presently the command, 'Halt! 
Order arms!' and the crash of muskets on the floor. The G<>n- 
eral, not knowing what it meant, ran down stairs to ascertain 
the cause. There he found an officer in command of a squad of 
soldiers, and on asking an explanation, was informed that it was 
the night guard of the Executive Mansion, which for a long time 
had been stationed there every night. But General Grant in- 
formed the officer that he could take care of himself, and ordered 
him to take his soldiers to their quarters. He waited till his 



(I'RAXT AXD THE PRE^IDKXCY Soo 

armed friends had left, then locked the door and went to bed. 
The next day the whole business of sentinel service was discon- 
tinued, and not a soldier has been on duty at the \Miite House 
since." 

Speaking of Grant as President, that most judicial 
observer of men and things, Dr. Andrew D. White, 
says of him: "As to General Grant, I believe now, as 
I believed then, that his election (reelection) was a 
great blessing and that he was one of the noblest, purest, 
and most capable men who have ever sat in the Presi- 
dency. The cheap, clap-trap antithesis which has at 
times been made between Grant the soldier and Grant 
the statesman is, I am convinced, utterly without foun- 
dation. The qualities which made him a great soldier 
made him an effective statesman. This fact was clearly 
recognized by the American people at various times 
during the war, and especially when, at the surrender 
at Appomattox, he declined to deprive General Lee of 
his sword, and quietly took the responsibility of allow- 
ing tlie soldiers of the Southern army to return with 
their horses to their lields to resume their peaceful 
industry. These statesmanlike qualities were devel- 
oped more and more by the great duties and responsi- 
bilities of the Presidency. His triumph over financial 
demagogy in his vetoes of the Inflation Bill, and his tri- 
umph over political demagogy in securing the Treaty of 
Wasliington and the Alabama indenmity, prove him a 
statesman worthy to rank with the best of his predeces- 
soi's. In view of these evidences of complete integrity 
and high capacity, and bearing in mind vari(Uis couver- 



356 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

sations which I had with him during his puhlic life 
down to a period just before his death, I feel sure that 
history will pronounce him not only a great general but 
a statesman in the best sense of the word." 

When we speak of the welfare of the country we 
are in the habit of using the two words, Peace and 
Prosperity, ^o act was ever more fruitful in securing 
the first than the Treaty of Washington, which averted 
war with England and secured the peaceful adjustment 
of the Alabama Claims by arbitration ; and prosperity 
was never more effectively promoted than by Grant's 
financial policy, which prevented an inflation of the 
currency and secured the resumption of specie pay- 
ments. Enormous public debt, and depreciated and ir- 
redeemable currency, were among the legacies of war. 
Demagogues stood ready to tempt the people with 
schemes of inflation and repudiation. Grant set his 
face determinedly against them. His veto of the In- 
flation Bill proposing to reissue fifty millions of green- 
backs which had been retired, came at a critical moment 
and turned the scales against depreciated money. In 
that one act he did more than all the other public men 
of his time to defend the Nation's faith, maintain the 
national credit, and prepare the way for resumption. 
With all his alleged incapacity for business he had 
broad ideas of financial and political economy and a 
rugged sense of business integrity, wliich were of in- 
estimable service to his country in days of storm and 
stress. John Fiske thought that for the vetoing of the 



GRANT AND THE PRESIDENCY 357 

Inflation Bill in 1874, and his consistent advocacy of 
the Kesumption Act which passed in 1875, Grant should 
be given as high credit as for any of his great victories 
in the field. 

As an illustration of the methods of President 
Grant and the working of his mind when great questions 
were up for consideration, we have this testimony of 
Hamilton Fish, who was so closely connected with his 
administration : 

"In his cabinet meetings he was free to accept the opinions 
and views of the members, often antagonistic to his own precon- 
ceived notions. As an instance of this, when the inflation bill 
had passed Congress, and was strenuously urged upon him for 
approval by many of his most influential friends in each house 
of Congress, and by a majority of his Cabinet, he at first re- 
luctantly yielded to a determination to approve the bill, and pre- 
pared a paper to be submitted to Congress, explaining his reasons 
for approval of the bill. ... I had most strenuously advo- 
cated his vetoing the bill, and an evening or two previous to this 
Cabinet meeting, he sent for me and read me the paper. Having 
done it, he remarked: 'The more I have written upon this, the 
more I don't like it; and I have determined to veto the bill, and 
am preparing a message accordingly.' " 

It is interesting to turn from his acts as President 
to his sympathy and regard for men against whom he 
fought in the war. Ex-Confederate General Longstreet 
had been one of the guests at Grant's wedding in 1849. 
:Not forgetting their warm friendship in those days, 
and knowing that the ravages of war had made him a 
poor man. Grant offered him the position of Surveyor 
of the Port of 'New Orleans. There was trouble in the 
Senate as to the confirmation of the appointment, and 



358 GRA\T, THE MAX OF MYl<lTERY 

Longstrect, not wishing to embarrass the President, 
wanted him to withdraw his name; hnt Grant said: 
"Give yourself no uneasiness about that. The Sen- 
ators have as iiumy favors to ask of me as I have of 
them, and I will see that you are confirmed." 

Mrs. George E. Pickett, wife of General Pickett, 
who led the fatal charge the last day at Gettysburg 
against the Union forces, writes of the tender memories 
she had of Grant. She called upon him with her hus- 
band while he was President. Grant knew that his 
old comrade of West Point had been made a poor man 
by the war and he offered him the marshalship of 
Virginia. While sorely needing help, he appreciated 
the heavy draft made upon the President by office- 
seekers, and said : "You can't afford to do this for me 
now, and I can't afford to take it" ; but Grant instantly 
replied with firmness, "I can afford to do anything I 
please that is right." 

Grant is often called "The Silent Man." While he 
wrote with fluency and with great rapidity, it was 
difiicult for him to express himself extemporaneously 
until after his Presidental career, and many interesting 
stories are told of his attempts to talk. A large body 
of ministers once called upon him and made a long ad- 
dress, to which he was compelled to reply. After a 
sentence or two, Mr. Fish noticed that his voice faltered, 
and fearing that he might be at a loss what to say, the 
Secretary, standing next to him, caused a diversion by 
beginning to cough violently. The President after- 



GRANT AVD THE PRE^SIDENCY 359 

wards said to Mr. Fish, "How fortunate it was for me 
that you had that cough, as I had felt my knees begin 
to sliake. I do not think that I could have spoken an- 
other word." 

The following anecdote is told by General Jacob B. 
Cox in his military Reminiscences : 

"He (Grant) sometimes enjoyed with a spice of 
real humor the mistaken assumption of fluent men that 
reticent ones lack brains. One day during his Presi- 
dency he came into the room where the Cabinet was 
assembling, laughing to himself. 'I have just read,' 
said he, 'one of the best anecdotes I have ever met. It 
was that John iVdanis, after he had been President, 
was one day taking a party out to dinner at his home in 
Quincy, Avhen one of his guests noticed a portrait over 
his door, and said, "You have a fine portrait of 
Washington, Mr. Adams !" "Yes," was the reply, "and 
the old wooden-head made his fortune by keeping his 
mouth shut" ' ; and Grant laughed again with uncom- 
mon enjoyment. The apocryphal story gained a perma- 
nent interest in Grant's mouth, for, although he showed 
no consciousness that it could have any application to 
himself, he evidently thought that keeping the mouth 
shut was not enough in itself to ensure fortune, and 
at any rate was not displeased at finding such ground of 
sympathy with the Father of his country. Grant's 
telling the story seemed to me under the circumstances 
infinitely more amusing than the original." 



360 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

It is not necessary to multiply words in further 
commenting on Grant's statesmanship. In the period 
of his public life he is best judged by what he accom- 
plished, and by estimating the difficulties which beset 
his presidential career. In considering great national 
questions, he was a great President. Some people were 
hot headed for war with England on account of her 
delay in settling the Alabama claims; but Grant pro- 
moted arbitration to the utmost of his power, which 
resulted in peace and goodwill between the two nations 
and placed in our national treasury $15,500,000 in 
gold, in full settlement of the claims. He was first to 
give political impetus to the movement for civil service 
reform. During his administration the public debt was 
reduced $450,500,000. The internal revenue taxes 
were lowered $300,000,000; and the balance of trade 
was changed from $130,000,000 against this country 
to $130,000,000 in our favor. The Special Payment 
Act showed the wonderful strength of our public credit ; 
and when it went into effect on the first of January, 
1876, it made no more disturbance in financial circles 
than would the falling of the dew in the physical world. 

What the country needed at the beginning of Grant's 
administration was a President who would acquire the 
regard of a large portion of the Southern people without 
forfeiting the confidence of the Northern people; a 
statesman of nerve, of wholesome temperament, of rare 
judgment, and of endurance, to stand at the helm of 
the Ship of State. Grant was that man. 




XXXIX. 

THE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD. 

T now became possible for Grant to carry out 
a long cherished plan of a trip around the 
world. By disposing of some of his prop- 
erty he would be able to travel as might the 
ordinary citizen of moderate means, and the trip was be- 
gun in May, 1877, with Mrs. Grant, two sons, Frederick 
D. and Jesse R., Mr. Borie, and John Russell Young, as 
companions. As the Vandalia sailed from Phila- 
delphia, the party was saluted by a vast crowd of people 
and accompanied down the harbor by a small fleet. 

One of the greatest surprises of Grant's life was the 
enthusiastic welcome given him on his arrival in Liver- 
pool. He was greeted at the custom house by a great 
throng of English citizens eager to grasp his hand, and 
he was still further amazed to be presented by the 
Mayor with the freedom of the city. 

The journey to London was a constant ovation, the 
people crowding to meet him, delighting to do him 



362 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

lionor. Especially was this so in Manchester, where he 
was lodged in the town hall and made the guest of 
honor at several large gatherings. On the morning after 
Grant's arrival in London, he was introduced to the 
Prince of Wales ; but his formal presentation to Lon- 
don society was at a reception given by Minister 
Pierrepont, June 5th. 

The late Mr, Jesse Seligman of Xew York, the well 
known banker, was a warm personal friend of Grant, 
and he says that when the General arrived in London, 
Mr. Pierrepont handed him a copy of the speech the 
Lord Mayor intended to deliver at the welcome cere- 
mony, so that the General could prepare a proper reply. 

But Grant said : "Keep it away from me, for I 
won't be able to say a word unless I do it spontan- 
eously," He spoke spontaneously, and it is said to 
have been the best speech he ever made. 

The exact social status of Grant in English society 
had been difficult to determine. After much discussion 
it was agreed that he should be received as an ex- 
sovereign, he to make first visits on members of the 
Royal family, and all other Englishmen were to yield 
him precedence. This was practically the view taken 
by the other countries and carried into effect more 
punctiliously in them than in England, where a more 
impulsive man might have made serious trouble at the 
disrej2;ard of the agreement shown bv the Roval faniilv. 

On June 15th, the freedom of London, the highest 
honor that could bo given him by the cor])oration of 



THE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD :»>:} 

that city, was conferred upon liini. This was but the 
beginning of attentions paid him in all parts of the 
kingdom and by all classes of people. Honored as a 
guest by the Queen and the Prince of Wales, compli- 
mented by people of high rank, constantly feted and 
flattered by society, he was also claimed as a friend by 
working-men, who greeted him by thousands as he went 
his way up and down the country. To these he was the 
supreme revelation of democracy, where a man humbly 
born, without the accessories of wealth or social position, 
could, by his own worth, come to be ranked among the 
rulers of the world. 

Those who were of his immediate party fully real- 
ized how much of the pleasure of the trip came to him 
through such informal meetings with the common people 
as could be arranged, and how irksome to him were 
many of the more formal functions of society ; but 
wherever he went he w^as master of himself and equal 
to the occasion. American newspapers, regardless of 
personal feelings and prejudices, recorded the events of 
his journey with pride. 

Grant's itinerary took him to the principal cities 
of the British Isles, the Continent, Egypt, Palestine, 
Siam, Burmah, India, China, and Japan. Each in its 
peculiar w^ay did him honor. 

While visiting Milan, in the spring of 1878, Grant 
was invited to review^ the flower of Italy's army — the 
pride of all, the flying Bersaglieri. The officers bril- 
liantly uniformed, the horses finely decorated and 



364 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

grandly caparisoned, and the immense crowd gathered 
to witness the scene, made the spectacular affair one of 
peculiar interest. Another marked feature immediately 
preceding the review, was furnished by three grooms 
who were using all their strength to restrain a beautiful 
high-spirited, plunging horse. A partial description of 
the review is taken from an article written for a maga- 
zine by Captain i^lfred M. Fuller, Second United 
States Cavalry. 

"Presently Grant appeared from the hotel — a 
stranger to the Italian oificers, and a surprise to them 
because of his modest manner and plainness of dress. 
After being presented to the officers, an escort led the 
General to the restless horse, which the three stalwart 
grooms had found such difficulty in managing. It was 
the horse Grant was to ride in reviewing the flower of 
the Italian army ! He looked with admiration on this 
restless animal which had never been ridden. Suffer- 
ing from a severe stiffness in the right leg. Grant was 
assisted on to the saddle by two officers while the three 
grooms held the horse. So soon as he touched the 
seat, however, he grasped the reins, his form straight- 
ened, and the change in his appearance immediately 
so impressed those around with his thorough horseman- 
ship, that spontaneously a shout of applause went up 
from the crowd. The horse, after a few futile plunges, 
discovered that he had his master, and started off in a 
gentle trot. From that time on, horse and rider were 
as one being. For two hours, most of the time with his 



TEE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD 365 

horse at a gallop, Grant kept both mounted and foot 
troops on the move. . . . Murmurs of wonder and 
admiration came from his escort, on their return. 
They themselves looked much fatigued, but the General 
appeared as calm and unruffled as if he had been seated 
in a rocking-chair." 

From Mr. Young's journal and from the chronicles 
of the daily press a very interesting study of social life 
may be made. There were occasional complications re- 
quiring in their settlement tact and diplomacy, as in 
France, where Grant had incurred the displeasure of 
many of the people by his attitude in the Franco- 
Prussian war ; but difficulties were adjusted and he was 
most cordially received by President McMahon, and 
spent several weeks in Paris, Berlin interested Grant 
more than any other city in the Old World except 
London. Because of a recent attempt on the life of the 
Emperor he was in retirement, and the most notable 
person whom Grant met was Bismarck, who paid him 
every attention, entertaining him at his own home. 

It is interesting to note some of Grant's impressions 
of Rome and Venice. Pictures and statuary did not 
interest him. He liked the cathedrals, the public build- 
ings, and the castles, but most of all he wanted to see 
the people at their work. At St. Petersburg the 
General's party was met by the emperor's aide-de-camp, 
and the following day Grant met his Imperial Highness, 
Alexander. Some apprehension had been felt over this 
visits and Grant had been advised against going to 



366 GRANT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

Russia, because of the unpleasant circumstances con- 
nected with the Russian minister in Washington at the 
time of the visit of Prince Alexis to the United States 
in 1872 ; but the General was received with the utmost 
cordiality by the Czar. 

In Spain the General was received as a great com- 
mander. The one great pleasure of this visit was the 
meeting with Seiior Castelar, the ex-President of Spain, 
the one man in the country whom Grant really desired 
to see. In Portugal the King desired to present Grant 
with the grand cross of the Tower and Sword, but the 
General refused, considering himself debarred from 
its acceptance by the law concerning the receiving 
of decorations from foreign countries. 

The trip to India was preceded by a return to Lon- 
don and a visit to Ireland. The city of Dublin received 
him most enthusiastically and presented him Avith the 
freedom of the city. He replied, "I am by birth a 
citizen of a country where there are more Irishmen, 
either native born or the descendants of Irishmen, than 
there are in all Ireland. I have therefore, had the 
honor and the pleasure of representing more Irishmen 
and their descendants than the Queen of England." 
It had required not a little ability, tact, and sflyotr 
faire to respond fittingly to the many greetings at the 
public gatherings and to meet graciously the many 
types of men that crowded around him, but each day 
had added to the fame of Grant and increased his pres- 
tige. Especially was this true in the East. By tempera- 



THE TRIP AROUXD THE WORLD 367 

ment and training Grant had that poise of mind, that 
clearness of judgment, that quiet intentness of purpose 
that appealed to these more reserved peoples, and they 
welcomed him as a friend. Of his reception in China 
he writes : ''My reception by the civil military authori- 
ties of China was the most cordial ever extended to any 
foreigner, no matter what his rank. The fact is, the 
Chinese like America better, or, rather, hate it less, than 
any other foreigners. The reason is palpable ; we are 
the only power that recognizes their right to control 
their own domestic affairs." Of Hong Kong he says: 
"This is really the most beautiful place I have yet seen 
in the East. The city is admirably built, and the 
scenery most picturesque." 

Japan impressed him very deeply and he speaks of 
his reception there as exceeding anything preceding it, 
and further he says that Japan is beautiful beyond de- 
scription, and the people most interesting; expresses 
wonder at the marvellous evidences of progress and 
clearly discerns that the nation was coming to a con- 
sciousness of its strength. 

At Japan Grant's journey through every foreign 
land had come to an end. On the 3rd of September, 
1879, he and his party embarked on the City of Tokio, 
at Yokohama, for San Francisco. The Grant who de- 
parted from San Francisco in 1854 and the Grant who 
returned to the same city in 1879, form perhaps the 
greatest contrast known in human history. The sight- 
ing of the Tol'io on the 20th of September was the sig- 



368 GRANT, THE MAN OF HISTORY 

nal of a marvellous demonstration. The pealing of 
bells, the booming of cannon from the forts, and the 
steaming down the harbor of hundreds of gaily deco- 
rated vessels bearing thousands of guests who sent up a 
rapturous cheering, can give only a faint idea of the joy 
and enthusiasm of the occasion. 

The sun had set below the waters of the sea when the 
General was escorted to the Palace Hotel. The pro- 
cession was one of the grandest ever seen in San Fran- 
cisco. Although night had come on, the streets had the 
appearance of meridian splendor. The receptions and 
other honors given to the General were continued for 
several days. The city could do no more to honor its 
guest, and very few in any land could have done as 
much. Practically he had seen all the world, but there 
was one spot which this man of splendid achievements 
and of simple manners desired to visit before leaving the 
Pacific Coast. He accepted the invitation to make a 
brief stay at Vancouver, Oregon, where the Fourth 
Infantry, of which he w^as quartermaster, had been 
located in 1853. He was delighted with the visit, and 
on the 14th of October, 1879, standing on the very spot 
where the old barrack had been located, he made an ad- 
dress of two hundred words in response to the soul- 
stirring welcome of the citizens. 

While journeying homeward the train made many 
short stops that the people might see and cheer the 
General, and Chicago was reached in time that he might 
attend the annual meeting of the Army of the Tennes- 



THE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD 369 

see, November 12th and 13th. Preparations had been 
made for his reception. Like all other receptions given 
him, no matter on what continent, it was nonpartisan. 
The city was elaborately decorated with banners and 
flags, and thousands upon thousands of people occupied 
windows, stands, and side-walks to catch a glimpse of 
the man whom republics, kingdoms, and empires had 
delighted to honor. 

Grant reached Philadelphia December 12th, 1879, 
thus ending his journey around the globe in two years, 
six months, and twelve days. It was a remarkable tour. 
The fame of his romantic and singularly successful 
career as a soldier had preceded him into all countries, 
and great curiosity to see him existed everywhere. As 
an ex-President of the United States he was received 
with distinguished honors, official and social, in every 
country which he visited in Europe and Asia. Cities 
presented him with addresses and officially offered him 
their freedom ; and great throngs of people attended 
these ceremonies, curious to see the great American 
commander. It was because of such occasions, and 
these and other public receptions, that he saw more peo- 
ple "from kings down to lackeys and slaves than any- 
body who ever journeyed on this earth before." 

All in all. Grant's tour around the world surpassed, 
in many unusual features, any triumphal tour, how- 
ever magnificent, ever made by any other man in the 
entire historv of the human race. 



XL. 




GRANTS LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY. 

HEX Grant finished his world's tour he was 
nearing his fifty-eiglith year. The most ex- 
alted military and political positions had 
been bestowed upon him by his own coun- 
try, and sovereigns and statesmen of Europe and Asia 
had received him with the highest honors. The world 
could give nothing more that would add to his fame. 
He had reached the sunnnit of liuman distinction. 

The General had been in his homeland but a few 
weeks before lie gratified a cherished desire to visit Cuba 
and Mexico, which was done in the winter of 1879-80, 
and everywhere in his journey he was welcomed with 
extraordinary demonstrations. He had seen all the 
world as the saying goes, and afterwards was glad to 
visit Galena, where he could have the comiianionship of 
his old friends and enjoy a season of rest. 

Early in 1880 a quiet movement was begun to make 
Grant a candidate for the Presidency. It was thought 



GRAXT't; LAt:lT AXD GREATEST VICTORY 371 

by those who were persistent in favoring the third-term 
idea, that his remarkable tour of the world would give 
him a prestige that would lead to victory in the con- 
vention which was to meet in Chicago in Jime. That 
astute politician and powerful leader of men, Roscoe 
Conkling, was a prime factor in the movement. At- 
tempts were made to draw the General into active can- 
vass, but his good sense and firmness prevailed. He 
Avas never actuated by improper ambition. When his 
friends and supporters tried to get him to commit him- 
self to the movement, he went only so far as to say that 
he would ''neither accept nor decline an imaginary 
thing." But when he was pressed hard to give a defi- 
nite answer, he said : 

"I owe so much to the Union men of the country 
that if they think my chances are better for election 
than those of other probable candidates, I cannot decline 
if the nomination is tendered without seeking on my 
part." 

When his name was presented by Roscoe Conkling, it 
was followed by one of the wildest scenes ever enacted 
in a national convention. There was a traditional senti- 
ment against a third term, and although a majority of 
the convention were the General's warmest friends, they 
could not consistently vote for his renomination. The 
contest was long, bitter, and full of excitement. His vote 
never fell below 302 and never exceeded 313. For 
nearly thirty-six ballots his vote was 306 ; but defeat 
came at last, and James A. Garfield was nominated. As 



372 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

a memorial of the loyalty of those who were pledged to 
vote for Grant from the beginning to the end, an 
iron medal was struck and given to each of the faith- 
ful 306. Grant was not disappointed over his failure 
in the convention. His most cordial support of Garfield 
was the characteristic generosity of a great man. 

After the expiration of Grant's second term as 
President, he had no place which he could regard as a 
permanent home. While he owned a house in Galena — 
the gift of friends — he could not decide to spend his re- 
maining years in the little western town which his name 
had made famous, neither could he conclude to occupy 
the beautiful residence given him by the Union League 
of Philadelphia. Through the munificence of his pat- 
riotic friends, Grant had received much in money and 
houses ; but on his return from his tour abroad he was 
not a man of large means. The spirit of independence 
was bred in Grant, and when it was proposed that 
he and his family should tour the world it was his pur- 
pose to pay the expense himself, which amounted to up- 
wards of $25,000. While the General cared little for 
money and knew nothing of the art of making it, he 
realized that something more tlian the ordinary income 
from any investments he could make would be necessary 
properly to support his family. 

For a man of his temperament, love of sociability, 
and business activity, Grant believed that New York 
was the better place in which to establish a permanent 
home; and besides this, he was firmly of the opinion 



GRANT'S LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY 373 

that the city offered him a more favorable opportunity 
to invest wisely his little fortune. Therefore, in Au- 
gust, 1881, he bought a house near Central Park, and 
became a citizen of New York. It was about this time 
that several of his friends in New York raised a trust 
fund of $250,000, the interest on which should go to 
Mrs. Grant. 

Grant's love for his family was one of the strongest 
and most attractive traits of his character. He never 
failed to appreciate the worth of his mother's love, 
patience, and wisdom during his early years at George- 
town. When she died in 1883 at Jersey City Heights, 
New Jersey, the General, when at the funeral, said to 
Dr. Howard Henderson, her pastor: "In the remarks 
which you make, speak of her only as a pure-minded, 
simple-hearted, earnest, Methodist Christian. Make no 
reference to me ; she gained nothing by any position I 
have filled or honors that may have been paid me. I 
owe all this and all I am to her earnest, modest, and 
sincere piety." 

Schiller says: "Disappointments are to the soul 
what a thunder-storm is to the air." Grant's removal 
to New York was the beginning of the end. Had it not 
been for his misfortunes, we would never have known 
the entire greatness of his character. As I have said on 
a previous page. Grant greatly desired to live a life of 
business activity in the city. To manage his financial 
affairs so that his income would meet the demands of 
the household, was a necessity. Colonel William Con- 



374 nj?AXT, THE MAX OF MYf^TERY 

ant Church says: ''A^o one could flatter Grant by calling 
him a great soldier .... but when a Wall street 
sharper sought to persuade him that he and his sons 
were great financiers, or at least that his sons were, he 
found a listening ear." It was not difficult, therefore, 
to induce the General to become a special partner in 
the banking firm of Grant & Ward, and all his property, 
accumulated since the war, was invested in the bank, 
the management of the institution being almost com- 
pletely in the hands of Ward. 

Everything went on pleasantly and successfuU}' 
with Grant in his life in New York, until Christmas 
Eve, 1883. He had been visiting some friends, and in 
stepping from the cab at his residence he slipped on the 
ice and sustained a severe injury of the thigh which 
caused him intense pain. The same heroic patience 
with which lie combated the painfulness of a sprained 
ankle in the stormy Sunday night at Shiloh, and the 
severity of the injury he received in being thrown from 
his horse in New Orleans shortly after the fall of Vicks- 
burg, was manifest in the accident in jSTew York. His 
distress and lameness were long continued, and while 
he was able to travel a little some weeks afterwards, his 
usual bodily activity was greatly impaired. 

Another and still greater misfortune quickly over- 
took the General. In May, 1884, while he was yet a 
sufferer from the injury of the thigh, he learned that 
through the unblushing frauds of Ward the firm of 
Grant & Ward was on the verge of bankruptcy. At the 



GRANT'S LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY 375 

suggestion of the junior member of the firm, Grant was 
induced to apply to William H. Vanderbilt for a tem- 
porary loan of $100,000 to save the institution from ab- 
solute ruin. Mr. Vanderbilt, being an intimate friend 
of Grant, promptly gave him a check for the amount 
wanted. But matters grew worse, and in a few days 
the firm with which the name Grant was connected, was 
hopelessly wrecked. 

Any effort to describe Grant's disappointment at 
this time would be feeble indeed. It was the hardest 
shock to his sensibilities he had ever received. That 
the name of Grant should be associated with the frauds 
by which the bank went down in the vortex of destruc- 
tion, almost ''cost him his grijj on life." Everything 
was gone, even the gift of $250,000 to Mrs. Grant. 
But there were two elements in Grant's nature — courage 
and integrity — which no financial disaster could de- 
stroy. Speaking of these dark days in the General's 
life a writer in the Macmillan says: "Here we see an 
intrepid soul which refused to be crushed even when all 
of his little world stood around him in ruins." And in 
the North American Review are found three sentences 
worth quoting: "Neither responsibility, nor turmoil, 
nor danger, nor pleasure, nor pain, impaired the force 

of his resolution What did the obligations, 

the temptations, the sorrows, the struggles of life make 
of this man ? One of the truest, bravest, strongest hu- 
man entities the world has ever produced." 

When all his investments were lost he went to Van- 



376 ORANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

derbilt and deposited with him as security for the loan 
of $100,000, the entire collection of gold-hilted swords, 
gold-headed canes, medals of rare value, costly paint- 
ings, especially prepared documents, and many other 
tokens of friendship presented to him by the different 
cities, governments, and nations of the wide world. 
But Mr. Vanderbilt did not hold this priceless collec- 
tion as security. He soon afterwards returned them to 
Mrs. Grant, and ultimately they were deposited in the 
National Museum at Washington. 

In June, 1884, broken in fortune and in health, he 
took up the battle for bread. When the Century Com- 
pany repeated an invitation, which he had once de- 
clined, to write a magazine article on Shiloh, he con- 
sented, and entered upon a new kind of work with 
great ardor. He was teaching the world that the pen 
was mightier than the sword. So satisfactory was the 
result that he was asked to continue and describe the 
capture of Vicksburg. Then at the solicitation of pub- 
lishers he set about writing the story of his life ; and 
turning his back upon the business and political world, 
he addressed himself to his task, in which he found so- 
lace for his woes, the promise of competency for his old 
age, and support for his wife should she outlive him. 

In the autumn of 1884 he complained of pain in his 
throat, and difficulty in swallowing. These steadily in- 
creased and greatly interfered with his work. After a 
time he found it impossible to take solid food, and 
gradually grew weaker until he was confined to his 



GRANT'S LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY 377 

house. His friends in Congress, after one failure, suc- 
ceeded in March, 1885, in passing a bill restoring him 
to his rank of General in the Army, with full pay, but 
it was too late to awaken interest or give pleasure, ex- 
cept as the money would be of service to those he loved. 
He was face to face with a relentless foe and all his 
mighty energies were absorbed in the contest. For a 
time he lost interest in his book. One volume was fin- 
ished, and the second begun. On the 10th of March 
an examination of tissue was made, revealing cancer of 
the throat. As the word was flashed around the world, 
the tide of appreciation and sympathy, which had ebbed 
during his misfortunes, returned in a mighty flood. All 
criticisms were forgotten, and prayers were offered 
throughout the land for his recovery. The first crisis 
in the great struggle came on April 5th. So apprehen- 
sive were his physicians that they did not leave the 
house. In the early morning they were summoned, and 
to all appearances their distinguished patient had come 
to his last hour. Dr. Newman, his pastor, was sum- 
moned and administered baptism. His physicians gave 
him a hypodermic treatment and he soon showed marked 
signs of improvement. A little later he expressed a 
new interest in life, and said : "I want to live to finish 
my book." 

His improvement was now rapid and marvellous, 
and with his new lease of life came the determination 
to complete his great task. In commenting upon his re- 
turn of courage. Dr. George F. Shrady, the chief of his 



378 dRAXT, THE MAX OF MYSTERY 

medical advisers, says: "He resolved to face the enemy, 
trust iiig' to adapt himself to new conditions. It was 
this discipline that was necessary to the few working 
days left to him. The only relief in the situation was 
to make the most of the remaining opportunity and 
stuhbornly persist to the end. He admitted the fact and 
bravely trudged along under marching orders." 

On his last Easter vast crowds gathered in front of 
till' house, and merely by their silent presence, showed 
their interest and sympathy. He dictated a message to 
the American people, expressing his gratitude and clos- 
ing with the words: ''I desire the good will of all, 
whether heretofore friends or not.'' That desire was 
answered to the full, and even Jefferson Davis sent a 
message of condolence. As the warm weather came on, 
a change was necessary, and his friend, James W. 
Drexel, placed his cottage on Mount McGregor at the 
General's service. On June 16th he left the city, took 
the train up the Hudson, looked for the last time at 
West Point as he swiftly passed and recalled the day 
when, as a youth of seventeen, he first beheld it. In due 
time he reached Mount McGregor and found a little 
comfort in the clear, fresh air and the fine views. But 
his enemy gave him no rest and the great battle wont 
on without a moment's cessation. Two days after his 
arrival at the cottage he wrote on a card these pathetic 
words: "It is just a week to-day since I have spoken. 
My pain is continuous." But this did not cause his pen 
to lag. It is said that he composed more matter in the 



GRANT'S LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY 379 

eight weeks following the tirst of May, 1885, than in 
any other eight weeks of his life. During the two 
months prior to his death he wrote fifty pages of the 
book in as many days. On the first of July, he worked 
continuously four hours, and on the second, three hours. 
At last the great task was completed. The battle was 
won. The mighty spirit had held the dying body in 
control until he had concluded his story and provided 
for the future of those he loved better than life. There 
was nothing now but to give a few last messages to those 
who called, and through them to the world. A company 
of Mexican journalists who came to pay their respects 
was cordially received, and even though he could not 
make a whisper, he wrote a message full of wisdom and 
promise for their country. He was greatly cheered by 
a visit from General Simon B. Buckner, his antagonist 
at Donelson. After a hearty greeting from his visitor, 
Grant wrote : "I appreciate your calling highly. I have 
witnessed since my illness just what I have wished to 
see since the war; harmony and good will between the 
sections. We now look forward to a perpetual peace at 
home and a national strength which will secure us 
against any foreign complications." As the days passed 
on he grew steadily weaker, and in the early morning 
of July 23rd, 1885, surrounded by his family and his 
faithful physicians, the great commander quietly 
breathed his last. 

Such a funeral as America had never seen — unless 
we except Lincoln's — was accorded to this quiet. man 



380 GRANT, THE MAN OF MYSTERY 

who cared so little for display. At the central scene the 
body was accompanied to its last resting place by a roll 
of drums, the thunder of guns, and the tramp of march- 
ing hosts, while North and South clasped hands over the 
precious dust. Throughout the land, over town and 
country-side, the people gathered to express their grati- 
tude, honor, and affection for the great warrior who, 
more than any other, had secured to this nation the in- 
comparable gift of peace. 

Thus we have followed through all the varied phases 
of his wonderful life, Grant, the Man of Mystery. We 
have watched the quiet, humble, unpromising citizen of 
Galena, as he emerged from obscurity at the call of his 
country, in a few months to become, through a succession 
of marvellous achievements, the greatest military chief- 
tain of his day, to command all the armies of the United 
States and be entrusted with the gigantic task of sub- 
duing the greatest of rebellions led by the most gifted 
of commanders. We have seen him for eight years at 
the head of a nation, during the trying period of recon- 
struction, after the awful devastation of four years of 
internecine strife. We have followed him in his un- 
paralleled journey around the world, which, begun as 
the quiet holiday of a private citizen, was turned into 
the triumphal march of a conqueror, as he was greeted 
and honored by princes, statesmen, and peoples of the 
realms through which he passed. We have seen him go 
down into his valley of humiliation, stripped of his 
property, deserted by many who fawned upon him in 



GRANT'S LAST AND GREATEST VICTORY 381 

prosperity, jeered at by his enemies, temporarily forgot- 
ten by the people he had served, and at last smitten by a 
terrible and incurable malady. We have seen him 
emerge, bearing the marks of his suffering, and exchang- 
ing sword for pen, hold his great enemy at bay while he 
wrote the story of his wonderful achievements, the 
world looking on in astonishment and sympathy. When 
the task was finished, he laid down his pen, and the in- 
vincible spirit went forth to join the company of the 
immortals who before him had fought the good fight 
and kept the faith. 

Over his mortal remains has been erected the most im- 
posing memorial structure on the Western Continent. 
His name and memory will be enshrined in the hearts 
of his grateful countrymen while the Republic shall en- 
dure. We may well say of him as Milton said of 
Shakespeare : 

"And, so sepulchred, in such pomp doth lie. 
That kings for such a tomb might wish to die." 



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